Telephone Crisis Centers
In the last decade telephone crisis have proliferated. There are now hot lines for concerns including but not limited to abuse (child, adult, or substance); divorce counceling; gay life difficulties; loneliness; rape; youth run-away or crisis situations; sexual information and counsel; middle-age crises; and outreach to the desperate, depressed, and suicidal. Experience and research both indicate that the telephone is a valuable tool of preventive psychotherapy.
Typically, a telephone crisis center operates with a small salaried professional and clerical staff aided by a much larger group of volunteers trained and supervised in doing telephone crisis work. Nurses are often well represented in telephone crisis centers.
Telephone hot lines usually provide training specific to their own particular goals and related to their own particular problem calls. You may want to gain the training and experience a specific telephone counseling center can offer. You will also want to be informed about other telephone crisis lines that are locally accessible. Learn about their services and skills, the training and supervision provided for the crisis workers, and their biases. Is their service prompt, responsive, and reliable? What information and referral services can they provide you as a practitioner? Become well acquainted with the strengths and limitations of crisis lines your clients may use.
Reference :Murray, RB and Zentner JP., Nursing Concepts for Health Promotion, Second Edtion, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1979.
