Introduction to Text and Chat With text and chat services increasingly moving online, emotional support work – the core element of the work of crisis lines is needing to be adapted to work in new formats that require a change in your perspective and technique. On the telephone, there are a number of ways of…
Tag: peer support
Critical Incident Stress (CIS) Management
Introduction Critical incident stress (CIS) management is the process of managing the response after a critical incident at work that causes employee stress. (Caine, & Ter-Bagdasarian, 2003) In a 911 communications environment this could be hearing a call where you’re not able to respond before someone dies of a medical injury, listening to a suicide…
Involuntary Celibacy: Causes and Treatments
Introduction I recently watched a documentary called “Shy Boys: IRL“, involving individuals who identify as experiencing involuntary celibacy (incel), also called forever alone (FA), true forced loneliness (TFL), love shy or a number of other terms. This describes an inability to get a romantic partner despite trying and over a certain age (usually by 18,…
Interviewing on a Suicide Hotline
Crisis line reference checks and interviews are one part of the process for becoming a volunteer. A reference check usually involves the volunteer coordinator, distress line manager or other individual who is responsible for screening volunteers calling two or three individuals that you have written down (often an academic or employment reference, and then a…
Declining Empathy in Social Work Students
I read an interesting article recently, from the Journal of Social Work Education, the title was “An Evaluation of Prepracticum Helping Skills Training for Graduate Social Work Students.” The abstract is reproduced below: “Although foundational practice classes play a key role in helping prepracticum students develop counseling skills, we know little about the effectiveness of…