Volunteering at a crisis hotline...

[MineralMan]

For about 6 years in the 1980s, I volunteered at a crisis hotline in California. The phone volunteers went through a extensive training process to learn how to help people who called. It involved lots of role-playing sessions and much more, followed by working phones with an experienced phone volunteer. The key, though, was developing empathy and an understanding that the people who called really did want help. From there, it was a matter of finding creative ways to help, and that depended on the individual volunteer.

A lot of the calls could be handled with careful listening and a referral. But, the suicide calls were all unique and could only be handled one at a time with great care and ingenuity. The key thing with every one of those calls was to understand that the person calling wanted a reason not to go through with it. The trick was finding what combination of listening and talking would provide that reason and convince the person to take an action to get help.

The amazing thing was that in the entire time I volunteered there, not a single person who called followed through with a suicide. All of the volunteers managed to listen and talk the callers into seeking assistance. Such calls weren't frequent, and most came in the middle of the night, but pretty much every phone volunteer had the experience. In those 6 years, I think I only had four of them. That record amazed me, and I give credit to the training all the volunteers received AND the individual creativity and compassion that let them find the unique solutions for each call.

I'm not doing that crisis line work any longer, but I want to thank every single crisis hotline volunteer who has ever worked a crisis phone line. Every time the phone rings, there's a chance they will save a life. Society owes a huge debt of gratitude for these tireless volunteers, I think.

[libodem]

1. Well

Ya thought right. I've been on both sides of the phone. My state has calls routed to Oregon or Washington. Only Montana has a higher suicide rate than Idaho. With the vets returning they are thinking about starting a crisis line out in Gowen Field.....the national guard complex.

[MineralMan]

2. Crisis lines have changed over the years.

There are fewer that rely on community volunteers these days. I understand their reasoning, but back in the 80s, those volunteers did the job. We didn't have caller ID in our office, either, so we couldn't pinpoint where the calls were coming from. Today, that's not so much of an issue. One of the things we tried to do was to get a location, so a mental health professional could be sent there if things looked dire. That wasn't always possible. When there were two volunteers on duty, we could sometimes work with the local authorities to trace a call and get a professional to the caller. Those situations were rare, though, and most of the time the volunteer managed to talk and listen the caller away from the edge and get the caller to call for help.

Thank you for doing that job. I hope that line gets set up for the returning vets. It's important.

[libodem]

3. My real situation

Is the pits right now. But if my disability got approved it would be fulfilling to volunteer and maybe even help with training.

[MineralMan]

4. I hope that all works out for you.

I'm sure you'd do a great job.

[libodem]

5. I saw the phD

Yesterday for a mental status exam. I can answer all the questions proving I'm not crazy or demented. That goes against me, probably. I have serious depression. I'm pretty sure the answers I gave prove that. I have a sinking feeling I'll have to try a third time.

Plus I've given other people the same mini mental status exam. I asked the guy please not to make me subtract serial 7's backward from 100. I got to spell world backward instead.

[MineralMan]

6. I once contracted viral encephalitis.

Was in a coma for a few days. After I came out of it, I think everyone who saw me for the next two weeks gave me a mental status check. I got very good at counting backwards by 7s. I had more trouble remembering three things for a few minutes, but as soon as I realized that, I focused more on that short-term memory test.

Eventually, it came time for me to be released to go home to finish recovering. The doctor started in on the mental status check, so I told him the three things he'd asked me to remember for the past three days, and he gave up. His final test, though, was interesting. I was still pretty shaky. He tossed my my shirt, which I had removed so he could listen to my heart and lungs. As I caught it, I realized that this was yet another test, so I focused about 75% of my mind on smoothly putting it on and buttoning it. I got to go home.

[libodem]

7. What an ordeal

I took care of a guy, who didn't recover from that, he had horrid permanent brain damage. No short term memory. Repeated himself with pet phrases and stories. Thank your lucky stars you came through that okay.

[MineralMan]

8. I know I'm lucky.

There were no long-term after effects at all. It took me about a month to recover my arithmetic skills, but that was the only thing I had to relearn. It was a very strange experience, altogether, for many reasons. Just to give you an idea:

When I first awoke from the coma I had been in, I opened my eyes to see my mother, my estranged wife, and my future wife all standing at the end of the hospital bed. I remember thinking, "I don't think I'm quite ready to deal with this." So, I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

[libodem]

9. Overstimulation

With that many people. Any brain insult can be so tramatic. I played bingo not long ago and one of the friends had a recent closed head injury. It was too much for her and my shoulders were in spasm. Bingo is tough if you play too many cards.