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Abstract
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Of the many characteristics of suicide prevention and crisis services, the most outstanding one is its use of volunteer (usually nonprofessional) individuals for the difficult task of giving concerned assistance to individuals who are in a state of crisis or contemplating a suicidal act.
In the more than 150 centers throughout the country, the training program designed to assist the volunteer to work with individuals on all types of difficulties varies quite widely. In most cases what happens in the training program is a direct reflection of the way the agency sees itself, its function, and the suicidal or crisis situation.
The Erie County SPCS is based on the concept that an emergency telephone service should provide more than a listening ear (although that by itself is a remarkable achievement). We feel that the telephone service is best conceptualized as telephone therapy - where the two persons engage in an interaction which has the goal of ameliorating, changing, modifying and, hopefully, improving the psychosocial condition of the caller. We further feel that the assistance should utilize the personal and environmental strengths of the calle and we do not utilize any community agencies unless absolutely necessary. Finally, we feel that this therapy can be effectively accomplished by any mature person who has interpersonal sensitivity (the ability to listen with your "gut") and sufficient intelligence to act judiciously.
We have trained more than 300 volunteer counselors over the past 18 months for the 24-hour telephone oriented counseling services. Over this period of time the training program has evolved into a fairly structured program which is conducted within the context of a small task-oriented experiential group. Typically, the group is composed of approximately 10 to 12 trainees and two leaders selected from the staff. The training program consists of eight, 21⁄2 and 3 hr. didactic and experiential sessions and two three-hour telephone room observation periods. Upon completion of the initial training program, the telephone counselors attend a series of advanced seminars and supervisory sessions.
Selection of Volunteers
One of the most important steps in training a new group of volunteers is the attitude or set that the prospective volunteer has of the agency, its purpose and its function in the community. These attitudes are explored through a questionnaire that they complete when they apply for the position of volunteer.
Language: en |