A single phone call may not seem like a big deal, but to someone in crisis, that contact can mean the difference between life and death.
So it might sound counterintuitive that many of the people who staff hot-line centers are volunteers, not dedicated social workers.
Not so, say specialists in the prevention field. Volunteers can provide the same kind of empathic approach to people in need as a professional. Those who would like to volunteer their time to a local hot line need only complete the required training sessions.
“Volunteers are every bit as good as paid staff. They get the same skills,” says Tim Jansen, crisis center division chairman for the District-based American Association of Suicidology (AAS).
Sometimes, volunteers even outperform their professional peers.
“When somebody volunteers their time for anything, they have a passion for it,” Mr. Jansen says.
A hot line — be it for drug, child or physical abuse — often involves a blend of volunteer and professional staffers.
Two organizations, the AAS and Indiana-based Contact USA, oversee and accredit the bulk of the hot lines across the country, says Mr. Jansen, who is an accreditation site examiner.
Approved hot lines typically offer training, educational sessions and role-playing scenarios to help give volunteers the proper information, Mr. Jansen says. These sessions feature information on addiction, suicide and other social ills, but the biggest lessons involve compassionate listening, he says.
At Virginia-based CrisisLink, anyone 21 years old and older can apply online (www.crisislink.org) to volunteer. Next, the volunteers must take 50 hours of training.
CrisisLink Executive Director Carol Loftur-Thun says the key lesson taught to volunteers is how to be an active, or empathic, listener.
“It helps [the caller] clarify what’s going in their lives,” Ms. Loftur-Thun says. “It’s empowering them to draw on their own strengths. Providing support and empathy helps people process some of their own feelings.”
Margaret Mathis, CrisisLink’s director of hot-line services and training, says active listening “is like learning a new language.”
“In our society, we’re taught to fix a problem. Active listening takes another approach,” Ms. Mathis says.
It can take some time before that message gets through to new volunteers.
“We see this ’ah-ha’ moment,” Ms. Mathis says. “Some people are naturally empathic. For most of us, it takes a lot of work.”
New volunteers don’t always buy into the system at first. They don’t believe CrisisLink’s 38 years of experience right away, Ms. Mathis says. They become believers after “they take their first call and use the skills and literally see and feel how much it works,” she says.
Ms. Mathis says volunteers don’t fit any one profile.
“People from all walks of life and backgrounds can be successful at this work, from FBI agents to teachers … to stay-at-home moms,” she says.
CrisisLink volunteers don’t stop learning at the end of training. Every volunteer must attend an annual refresher training course and supervisors make sure phone calls are handled properly.
Fred Bemak, a counseling and development professor at George Mason University, says hot-line staffing is a critical position to hold.
“You’re getting calls from people in complete crisis or significant need. Hot-line calls means there’s no one around them they can talk to,” Mr. Bemak says.
So training sessions must get right to the point.
“It teaches fundamental, basic communication skills: Engage others very quickly; you don’t have time to sit and reflect and build rapport,” Mr. Bemak says.
Budding volunteers also must get speedy access to the right referral sources.
Volunteers “are a source of stability and referral,” he says.
They also must quickly establish a semblance of trust with the callers.
If that first outreach is successful, then the caller can get in contact with more specific resources for aid.
“We’re really talking about first line of intervention with the capability and the skill to help people go to the second or third tier,” of services, he says.
Erin Predmore, clinical supervisor for the Virginia-based Raft Crisis Hotline, says callers often share a unique bond with those who answer their cries for help.
If a caller knew the person on the other end of the line was a social worker, “they’d expect to be taken care of,” says Mrs. Predmore, whose hot line serves New River Valley residents. They view the volunteer staffers differently, and as a result they don’t expect such ready-made answers.
Empowering the callers, giving them enough information to help themselves, is one of a hot-line staffer’s goals, Mrs. Predmore says.
“We want them to go away saying, ’This is how I do this. If this crisis comes up again I can handle it,’ ” she says.
At Raft, professional staffers work the phones, but from 4 p.m. through the early morning the volunteers take over.
Would-be volunteers must be at least 18 years old and must commit to a set shift every week, plus nights and weekends. They also must pass a criminal-background check and swear to keep the information they hear confidential.
Then, they must take an eight-week training course, with three hours of instruction each week, says Mrs. Predmore, who adds that the bulk of her volunteers come from Radford University and Virginia Tech.
The material covers suicide and homicide prevention, rape, substance and child abuse, and other issues.
But most of the calls the center receives are not as immediately critical.
“Most of the stuff they get are what we’d consider personal crisis” — losing a job or relationship woes, for example — “and not to that level,” she says.
Yet potential volunteers shouldn’t fear the most intensive calls. Years of proven training methods will give them the tools to handle such emergencies, she says.
“If they come to us with an interest and an ability to take feedback and learn, we can create a volunteer,” she says.
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