Callers’ Experiences of Contacting a National Suicide Prevention Helpline

Coveney, Catherine; Pollock, Kristian; Armstrong, Sarah; Moore, J. Carrick

doi:10.1027/0227-5910/a000151

Cited by 72 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…The qualitative findings on which this paper is based are drawn from a substantial mixed methods study of Samaritans emotional support services ( Coveney et al 2012;Pollock et al 2010). Data were collected between March 2008 and May 2009. the study included over 200 hours of observation (covering all weekdays and shifts) of Samaritans' activities and branches across the UK and qualitative interviews with 66 volunteers.…”

Section: Methods and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Configuring the caller in ambiguous encounters: Volunteer handling of calls to Samaritans emotional support services

Pollock

Moore²,

Coveney

et al. 2013

CAM

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This paper discusses volunteer strategies for handling and assessing calls to Samaritans emotional support services for the suicidal and despairing. It presents findings from the qualitative components of a twoyear mixed methods study based on an online caller survey, branch observations and interviews with volunteers and callers throughout the UK. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data analysis was undertaken using the principle of constant comparison. Many calls fell beyond the primary remit of a crisis service, and called for rapid attribution and assessment. Uncertainty about identifying 'good' calls and recognizing those which were not caused difficulty, frustration and negative attribution towards some callers. This paper presents our analysis of volunteers' accounts of how they configure the caller in intrinsically uncertain and ambiguous encounters, and how such strategies relate to the formal principles of unconditional support and non-judgemental active listening espoused by the organization.Keywords: active listening; helplines; negative attribution; Samaritans; self-protection; suicide; volunteering IntroductionSamaritans is a volunteer-based charity established in the UK in 1953 as a crisis support service for the despairing and suicidal (Varah 1988;Armson 1997). In 2011, 15,516 volunteers in 202 branches throughout the UK responded to 2,868,899 dialogue 1 contacts from callers (Samaritans 2012). The majority (83%) of dialogue contacts are by phone, but email and SMS text messages are increasing and callers may also make contact by letter or by visiting a branch. Volunteers aim to provide a confidential, anonymous, nondirective, active listening service which offers callers the opportunity to reflectively explore their feelings of emotional distress and so, ideally, gain insight into how they may start to address their difficulties and 'move on' in their lives. Samaritans hope that their emotional support will help callers to identify options other than suicide, and a core aim of the service is to work towards a reduction in deaths by suicide.However, another key principle is respect for self determination. Only the caller has the authority and responsibility to make decisions about his own life, including the judgement that his best interests are to end it. Unlike many suicide crisis helplines (de Anda and Smith 1993;Mishara 1997;King et al. 2003;Barber et al. 2004;Kalafat et al. 2007;Ingram et al. 2008), Samaritans will not advise or actively intervene to deflect a caller who declares intent to die by suicide. Volunteers aim to offer the caller unconditional, nonjudgemental acceptance and support. However, the caller remains in charge of his/her life, both in defining the nature of their problems, and taking responsibility for decisions about how best to deal with these (Nelson and Armson 2004;Samaritans 2009).In view of the anonymous and confidential nature of the service the information available to Samaritans about individual callers is very limited. National statistics are co...

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Section: Methods and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Configuring the caller in ambiguous encounters: Volunteer handling of calls to Samaritans emotional support services

Pollock

Moore²,

Coveney

et al. 2013

CAM

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“…Another limitation to be considered is the difficulty in assessing the characteristics of "suicidality", from the perspective both of users and of volunteers/raters (Pollock et al, 2012; Freedenthal, 2008). Qualitative evidence suggests that many users consider that there is a natural link between having mental health problems and being suicidal (Pollock et al 2010) and that some work up suicidal identities as a strategic way to appeal for support and help (Pollock et al, 2012; Horne and Wiggins, 2008). In doing so, they risk creating a significant blurring of the associations, interpretations and conclusions made by researchers on the positive impact of telephone services on suicidality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As pointed out above, qualitative findings have indicated that a common understanding of the term does not exist among users and volunteers (Pollock et al, 2010(Pollock et al, , 2012. The answer to the question whether telephone service interventions have a positive impact on their suicidal users seems, therefore, to hinge on what is meant by the term suicidal.…”

Section: Summary Of Analysis and Implications For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the outcome of immediate change may not be applicable to interactions with chronic or repeat callers who suffer from continuing distress. Although it should be recognized that repeat callers may be "chronically suicidal" in the sense that they have frequent and persistent suicidal thoughts and feelings, the literature points to the fact that a subgroup of repeat callers with chronic mental health problems who use helplines only give the impression of suicidality because they know that this is a precondition for using these services (Pollock et al, 2010(Pollock et al, , 2012. This means that the results of the studies measuring changes during calls must be interpreted with caution (Hall and Schlosar, 1995).…”

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confidence: 99%

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The impact of telephone crisis services on suicidal users: a systematic review of the past 45 years

Hvidt

Ploug

Holm

2016

Mental Health Review Journal

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Mental Health Review JournalResearch limitations/implications -A major limitation pertains to differences in the use of the term "suicidal". Other limitations include the lack of long-term follow-up and of controlled research designs. Future research should include a focus on long-term follow-up designs, involving strict data protection. Furthermore, more qualitative research is needed in order to capture the essential nature of the intervention.Originality/value -This paper attempts to broaden the study and the concept of "effectiveness" as hitherto used about telephone crisis services in the literature about telephone crisis services and offers suggestions for future research. Keywords Suicide prevention, telephone crisis interventions, evaluations, suicidality.Paper type Literature review. Page 1 of 34Mental Health Review Journal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 BackgroundAccording to World Health Organisation reports, deaths by suicide have increased globally with 800,000 deaths due to suicide annually (WHO, 2014). This number does not include suicide attempts, which can be 20 times more common than the number of completed suicides (Scott and Guo, 2012). Suicide has, therefore, been recognized as a serious global health problem in mostWestern countries and suicide prevention strategies have received increased attention over the past couple of decades (WHO, 2014).In the literature, many types of suicide prevention approaches and strategies are described, for example those that focus on medical means to prevent suicide (pharmacological), those proposing restricted access to lethal means (e.g. pesticides and firearms) and those attempting to enhance affective contact (counselling, psychotherapy, text messaging, postcards, etc.) (Goldney, 2005: 131; WHO, 2014).The present review focuses on those services that go under the popular term of "hotline" or "helpline". These are services whose main focus is to provide a telephone-based "listening" service that offers emotional and psychological support to individuals in distress, including those in suicidal states, and whose ultimate goal is to help prevent suicide. Such crisis intervention services operate under many names such as: "Befrienders Worldwide"(www.befrienders.org.), the "International Federation of Telephonic Emergency Services" (IFOTES) (www.ifotes.org.), "Lifeline International" (www.lifeline.org.au) and Samaritans (www.samaritans.org).Today's telephone crisis services can be dated back to the last part of the nineteenth century, when telephone crisis services were established for a short period of time in CentralEurope and the eastern part of the US before subsequently dying out.At that time they were established on the assumption that the potential suicidal individual would -when prompted by national and local advertising -either visit or telephone the org...

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“…Trained volunteers who provide online and telephone counselling are a valuable source of emotional help for individuals in crisis (150). Crisis helplines, in particular, have gained international recognition for their important contribution in supporting people during suicidal crises (151).…”

Section: Trained Volunteersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Indigenous self‐harm and suicide in the Kimberley: an audit of the 2005–2014 data

McHugh¹,

Campbell

Chapman³

et al. 2016

Medical Journal of Australia

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Callers’ Experiences of Contacting a National Suicide Prevention Helpline

Cited by 72 publications

References 36 publications

Configuring the caller in ambiguous encounters: Volunteer handling of calls to Samaritans emotional support services

Configuring the caller in ambiguous encounters: Volunteer handling of calls to Samaritans emotional support services

The impact of telephone crisis services on suicidal users: a systematic review of the past 45 years

Increasing Indigenous self‐harm and suicide in the Kimberley: an audit of the 2005–2014 data

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