As helpline workers, one of the most important duties we have outside of our actual work on the lines is to continue regular training. Training can help reinforce existing skills in areas such as emotional support, suicide risk assessment and crisis intervention, but also teach you skills in areas you may not have experience in…
Year: 2015
Common Suicide Myths
There are many prevailing myths about suicide, suicide risk assessment, and suicide intervention. Learning that someone is suicidal can be very frightening both for the person experiencing the thoughts and helpers. It’s important that as a well-informed helper you do your best to stop the spread of these myths by educating yourself in the basic…
Predicting Your Helpline Call Answer Rate
One role of helpline managers is to manage their workers so that they can answer the most calls possible within the available resources. Even helplines that run 24-hours and have 100% coverage can’t answer 100% of the calls that come in if they have more callers calling in than workers available. Using a system like Chronicall…
Recognizing Suicide Lethality (RSL) Scale
The Recognizing Suicide Lethality (RSL) scale, also called the “Thirteen Questions on Successful Suicide” is used to identify whether a person who may be exposed to suicidal individuals (such as a physician, social worker, minister, or educator) can recognize the signs of suicide. The questions in the RSL are based off the factors identified in the Suicide Potential Rating Scale (Holmes and…
Suicide Intervention Response Inventory (SIRI)
The Suicide Intervention Response Inventory is designed to assess the ability of paraprofessionals (as well as professionals) to recognize and respond to suicidal statements. (Neimeyer R.A. & Maclnnes, 1981) It is comprised of 25 segments, each of which represents an excerpt from a counselling session, and two potential responses. The test-user must rank the responses…