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This is hard to read. I volunteer at a crisis center, and just reading the description of how the phone volunteer handled the call made me cringe. In my experie
by altendo 10y ago
This is hard to read. I volunteer at a crisis center, and just reading the description of how the phone volunteer handled the call made me cringe. In my experience, you don't call the cops just because they call the suicide hotline and have guns - I've experienced instances where callers call and aren't suicidal. I'd need a clear sense of intent before going out of my way to do that. I really hope this was just a one-off thing, and not at all how volunteers (if they are volunteers at all) treat callers on the suicide hotline.
- mcguire 10y agoDo your clients know that you may call the police if you get a sense of intent?
- altendo 10y agoIf I perceive an imminent likelihood of an attempt, I'll generally start trying to get a location from them - it's not subtle, they'll know. Sometimes people will give it, other times they resist for whatever reason. For those that resist I will process that feeling that they have and then try again. They may even ask if I'll contact police, in which case I can't lie to them. Ultimately I may _never_ get a location, or I'll have an extremely ill-defined location - it's always up to the caller if that is information they want to give.
- altendo 10y agoclarification: if it gets to the point where I suspect an attempt is likely, or if an attempt is happening, I will start working towards attempting to get location information. The first thing I usually do, however, is help the caller process their feelings to help build trust upfront, even in cases of high suicidality. Speed is of the essence though in certain circumstances.