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Effects of Different Telephone Intervention Styles with Suicidal Callers at Two Suicide Prevention Centers: An Empirical Investigation
Author(s) -
Mishara Brian L.,
Daigle Marc S.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1023/a:1022269314076
Subject(s) - suicide prevention , psychological intervention , context (archaeology) , poison control , checklist , intervention (counseling) , injury prevention , mood , psychology , occupational safety and health , crisis intervention , human factors and ergonomics , clinical psychology , psychiatry , medicine , medical emergency , paleontology , pathology , cognitive psychology , biology
To determine the relative effectiveness of telephone intervention styles with suicidal callers, researchers listened unobtrusively to 617 calls by suicidal persons at two suicide prevention centers and categorized all 66,953 responses by the 110 volunteer helpers according to a reliable 20‐category checklist. Outcome measures showed observer evaluations of decreased depressive mood from the beginning to the end in 14% of calls, decreased suicidal urgency ratings from the beginning to the end in 27% of calls, and reaching a contract in 68% of calls, of which 54% of contracts were upheld according to follow‐up data. Within the context of relatively directive interventions, a greater proportion of “Rogerian” nondirective responses was related to significantly more decreases in depression. Reduction in urgency and reaching a contract were related to greater use of Rogerian response categories only with nonchronic callers.