Psych Club sponsors lecture
Discussion of volunteer crisis services
Julia Hogan
Issue date: 11/25/08 Section: News
On Tuesday, Nov. 18, Thomas Hutter, the director of volunteer services for CONTACT Crisis Line, spoke in Upstairs Haggar to the members of UD's Psychology Club. Hutter gave an informative presentation complete with a slide show on the CONTACT program.
CONTACT is a non-profit agency partnered with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that was established in 1967 by three Methodist ministers and provides 24-hour crisis phone lines for people of all ages. The phone lines are staffed by volunteers who go through forty hours of training. The free phone lines provide people in times of crisis a resource they can use to get help. The Susan and Ben Odom Call Center in Dallas has five adult lines, two teen lines, and two lifelines dedicated exclusively to suicide prevention. The center provides callers with information, referrals to other sources, free emergency transportation to those who are in danger, access to domestic violence shelters, DART passes and prescription assistance for certain drugs. The center also has a Teen Board of local high school students who are dedicated to raising awareness about the center and the issues with which it deals.
Those who call the center are typically going through a crisis, which may or may not include contemplation of suicide, and the only source they feel they can turn to is the CONTACT center. The model volunteers are trained to use when answering the crisis calls is based on the Rogerian Model using "Client Centered Therapy" developed by Carl Rogers. Client-centered therapy works on developing an "unconditional positive regard" for the individual calling the center in order to make them feel accepted, which will better enable them to work through the crisis. The volunteers actively listen to the caller in an effort to understand their crisis and to help them work through the crisis. Hutter emphasized that it is the volunteer's role to help the caller work through their crisis and not to solve the caller's crisis for them. He stressed that it is the volunteer's job to "empower" the caller to take control of the situation and create a plan for how they are going to act. He told the group that not all calls are successful and sometimes a caller will hang up as soon as a volunteer answers, but the volunteers do their best for every call.
CONTACT is a non-profit agency partnered with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that was established in 1967 by three Methodist ministers and provides 24-hour crisis phone lines for people of all ages. The phone lines are staffed by volunteers who go through forty hours of training. The free phone lines provide people in times of crisis a resource they can use to get help. The Susan and Ben Odom Call Center in Dallas has five adult lines, two teen lines, and two lifelines dedicated exclusively to suicide prevention. The center provides callers with information, referrals to other sources, free emergency transportation to those who are in danger, access to domestic violence shelters, DART passes and prescription assistance for certain drugs. The center also has a Teen Board of local high school students who are dedicated to raising awareness about the center and the issues with which it deals.
Those who call the center are typically going through a crisis, which may or may not include contemplation of suicide, and the only source they feel they can turn to is the CONTACT center. The model volunteers are trained to use when answering the crisis calls is based on the Rogerian Model using "Client Centered Therapy" developed by Carl Rogers. Client-centered therapy works on developing an "unconditional positive regard" for the individual calling the center in order to make them feel accepted, which will better enable them to work through the crisis. The volunteers actively listen to the caller in an effort to understand their crisis and to help them work through the crisis. Hutter emphasized that it is the volunteer's role to help the caller work through their crisis and not to solve the caller's crisis for them. He stressed that it is the volunteer's job to "empower" the caller to take control of the situation and create a plan for how they are going to act. He told the group that not all calls are successful and sometimes a caller will hang up as soon as a volunteer answers, but the volunteers do their best for every call.
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