ABSTRACT
To determine the relative effectiveness of telephone intervention styles with suicidal callers, researchers listened unobtrusively to 617 calls by suicidal persons at two suicide prevention centers and categorized all 66,953 responses by the 110 volunteer helpers according to a reliable 20-category checklist. Outcome measures showed observer evaluations of decreased depressive mood from the beginning to the end in 14% of calls, decreased suicidal urgency ratings from the beginning to the end in 27% of calls, and reaching a contract in 68% of calls, of which 54% of contracts were upheld according to follow-up data. Within the context of relatively directive interventions, a greater proportion of "Rogerian" nondirective responses was related to significantly more decreases in depression. Reduction in urgency and reaching a contract were related to greater use of Rogerian response categories only with nonchronic callers.
Subject(s)
Crisis Intervention , Hotlines , Suicide Prevention , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Chronic Disease , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Depressive Disorder/therapy , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Person-Centered Psychotherapy , Program Evaluation , Suicide/psychology , Treatment Outcome , Volunteers/psychologyABSTRACT
Callers to suicide prevention centers are mainly helped by volunteers trained to face these crisis situations. This study evaluated this process of intervention in order to better understand the nature of the interventions and their determinants. A total of 617 calls with suicidal clients were classified with a 20-category rating instrument, the Helper's Response List. Cluster analysis determined that the 617 intervention profiles could match one of two styles: nondirective ("Rogerian" -391 calls) or directive (226 calls). Further analyses indicated that the particular style of intervention was related more to the characteristics of the callers themselves than to characteristics of volunteers.