Abstract
BackgroundThis paper presents an analysis of call data records pertaining to a telephone helpline in Ireland among individuals seeking mental health and well-being support and among those who are in a suicidal crisis.ObjectiveThe objective of our study was to examine whether rule sets generated from decision tree classification, trained using features derived from callers’ several initial calls, could be used to predict what caller type they would become.MethodsMachine learning techniques were applied to the call log data, and five distinct patterns of caller behaviors were revealed, each impacting the helpline capacity in different ways.ResultsThe primary findings of this study indicate that a significant model (P<.001) for predicting caller type from call log data obtained from the first 8 calls is possible. This indicates an association between callers’ behavior exhibited during initial calls and their behavior over the lifetime of using the service.ConclusionsThese data-driven findings contribute to advanced workload forecasting for operational management of the telephone-based helpline and inform the literature on helpline caller behavior in general.
Highlights
Telephone support services, crisis lines, and mental health helplines are provided in several countries as a way of addressing social and mental health problems, including loneliness
This work shows that a significant model (P
This indicates an association between caller behavior exhibited in the initial calls and their behavior over the lifetime of using the service
Summary
Crisis lines, and mental health helplines are provided in several countries as a way of addressing social and mental health problems, including loneliness. They are provided as a means of supporting people who are suicidal and helping people access appropriate treatments. They feature in suicide prevention antistigma campaigns, whereby people are encouraged to disclose mental health problems and seek help [1]. This paper presents an analysis of call data records pertaining to a telephone helpline in Ireland among individuals seeking mental health and well-being support and among those who are in a suicidal crisis
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