National Helpline Research Articles

NewsCAP: Greater public awareness needed for SAMHSA's national addiction helpline.

NewsCAP: Greater public awareness needed for SAMHSA's national addiction helpline.

'I need help': Reasons new and re-engaging callers contact the PANDA-Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia National Helpline.

In Australia, the PANDA-Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia National Helpline (the Helpline) offers support to callers impacted by emotional health challenges in the perinatal period. Callers receive counselling from professional staff and peer support from volunteers. An understanding of factors that contribute to callers' experiences of emotional distress, as well as potential barriers and facilitators to help-seeking, can be used to inform future service design and delivery. A caller intake form is completed by Helpline staff when an individual contacts the service for the first time, or re-engages after a period of non-contact. We analysed all intake forms of individuals calling about their own emotional wellbeing from the middle month of each season in 2014: January, April, July, and October. Content analysis was undertaken, focusing on caller profile, patterns of help-seeking, and reasons for caller engagement. Of the 365 calls, the majority were from women (n=358, 98%) who were pregnant (n=59, 16%) or had a child ≤12months of age (n=241, 75%). Many were seeking support regarding depression (n=186, 51%) or anxiety (n=162, 44%), with a number seeking help for both (n=71, 20%). Almost a third were identified as being 'at risk', including a number who were experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm. Complex interrelating factors contributed to callers' emotional distress, including: stressful life events; pregnancy, birthing and parenting experiences; social isolation; and histories of mental health difficulties. Significant numbers of parents experience emotional health challenges in the perinatal period, but many do not receive adequate treatment. Complex factors contribute to callers' distress, highlighting the need for health professionals to undertake thorough psychosocial assessments during the perinatal period so those that need additional support are identified, and appropriate care provided. Telephone Helplines like PANDAs assist overcoming barriers to care and provide specialised perinatal mental health support to families.

Texting for Help: Processes and Impact of Text Counseling with Children and Youth with Suicide Ideation.

To explore: (1) how children contacting a child helpline with suicide ideation differ from children discussing other topics, (2) whether text messaging effectively helps, and (3) which counselor behaviors are most effective. Of 6,060 text sessions at the Danish national child helpline, 444 concerned suicidality, of which the 102 sessions that included self-rated, end Session ratings were selected for content analysis. Twenty-six percentage of suicidal children had severe suicidality. The suicide sample had significantly more girls, was older than the nonsuicide sample, and more often recontacted the helpline in the 2weeks prior to follow-up. 35.9% of suicidal children felt better immediately and over half ended the session with a plan of action. At follow-up, 23.9% of suicidal children reported feeling better; however, 37.0% reported feeling worse. Talking about emotions, expressing empathy, and encouraging the child to talk to someone were associated with positive impacts. Setting boundaries was associated with negative impacts. Texting with suicidal children can be helpful, but should be considered a first step toward obtaining more sustainable help. Research is needed to determine how to better help children who felt worse or did not improve in the 2weeks after contacting the helpline. Suggestions to further training of counselors are discussed.

MPs call for national mental health helpline in England

MPs call for national mental health helpline in England

Community Engagement Model to Match Psychosocial Health Needs

The purpose of the current study was to develop a model from community engagement (CE) process data to guide future CE for a focused health problem. Community-based participatory research was used to engage older adults affected by cancer and their family caregivers in eight cancer clusters in one northeastern U.S. state. CE was focused on informing participants about a national telephone helpline offering psychosocial cancer services. A purposeful sample by settings in the cancer clusters yielded an estimated 200,500 individuals who participated in information sessions, health fairs, sporting events, and the media (i.e., print, radio, or television). A general inductive approach was used to analyze CE data and resulted in a four-phase model that health professionals consider in initiating CE. Strategies are discussed for resolving two roadblocks that were identified. This model serves as a guide to standardize CE that informs a community about available services to address a focused health problem. [Res Gerontol Nurs. 2018; 11(6):293-305.].

Characteristics of callers to PANDA Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia National Helpline and their health assessment, history and risk factors

Characteristics of callers to PANDA Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia National Helpline and their health assessment, history and risk factors

Exploring the nature of calls to South African mental health helplines

IntroductionIn South Africa, 30.3% of the population experience mental illness during their lifetime. At least 1 in 10 non-natural deaths are because of suicide, and poverty, crime and HIV are common local psychosocial stressors. Despite this, it is estimated that only 5.0% of the national health expenditure is allocated to mental health, and nearly 75.0% of those with a mental health condition are untreated. Within this context exists an NPO offering free national mental health helplines, yet little is known about the population accessing these lines, the nature of difficulties reported and the kind of assistance provided. It is this knowledge gap this study addresses.MethodsDuring this exploratory mixed-method archival research, the NPO’s existing telephone counselling records from February and March 2017 were sampled (N = 300) to determine caller demographics, timing of calls, object of concern, nature of difficulty expressed and form of assistance. Descriptive, inferential and content analyses were applied to evaluate the data.ResultsResults show that helpline callers were mostly female (76.3%), aged 20 to 29 years (41.7%), of black race (61.3%) and from Gauteng (56.0%). The highest volume of calls was received on Thursdays (23.0%), and the busiest time was the 12:00 to 16:00 shift (47.3%). The majority of people called for self-related concerns (85.0%), most frequently mental illness (227 references) and interpersonal problems (105 references). The NPO predominantly assisted callers with referrals to other resources (86.0%), mainly support structures (144 references) and counselling services (127 references) run by other NPOs. The discovery of significant associations between age and race, gender and race, province and race, age and week day, province and shift, week day and shift suggests that the caller profile may vary depending on race and temporal factors.ConclusionCallers who most readily reached out to the helplines were women, and those aged between 20 and 40 years. Mental health support and counselling services appeared to be most needed, with a heavy reliance on NPOs – at least double that on government services, and nearly triple that on the private sector. This suggests that informal resources are central to South Africa’s mental health care system, substantiating greater investment in informal community care.

Can a Brief Telephone Intervention for Problem Gambling Help to Reduce Co-existing Depression? A Three-Year Prospective Study in New Zealand.

Problematic gambling and depression commonly co-exist, with limited research indicating that depression and/or psychological distress appear to reduce with brief interventions for problem gambling. The present study was designed to examine the effect, over 36months, of a brief problem gambling intervention on depression in a population of people seeking help for gambling issues. One-hundred and thirty-one participants were recruited from adult (18+ years) gambler callers to the New Zealand national gambling helpline. They received a manualised version of the helpline's brief intervention, and were assessed at baseline, 12 and 36months. Overall, problem gambling severity reduced from a score of 17 (using the Problem Gambling Severity Index) at baseline to a score of 7.5 at 36months. The percentage of participants with depression reduced from 74% at baseline to 41% at 36months. For both problem gambling and depression, the greatest reduction was in the first 12months. Multiple logistic regression analyses at baseline showed an association between problem gambling and depression. Repeated measures logistic regression indicated that reduced problem gambling severity reduced depression and that there was no independent time effect taking place (i.e. the decreased depression was not due to natural recovery). Thus a single brief telephone intervention for problem gambling substantially reduced the prevalence of depression. This has clinical and public health implications with a benefit being that people with depression and co-existing gambling problems may not necessarily need additional treatment for depression if they receive treatment for their gambling issues.

Characteristics of women calling the PANDA Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia National Helpline: a cross-sectional study.

The PANDA Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia National Helpline provides support for people affected by perinatal mental health issues. To describe the characteristics of women contacting the Helpline, specifically callers' health, past history and assessed risk factors. Analysis of routinely collected de-identified data of women making initial calls between July 2010 and October 2013. Five thousand eight hundred eighteen women made an initial call to the Helpline. Most were between 25 and 40years old (79%) and married/partnered (94%); 52% were having or had their first child; and 23% were pregnant. Over half had no prior mental health diagnosis at the time of their initial call, and 40% were assessed as 'high needs'-experiencing significant bio-psychosocial symptoms, complex situations and/or inadequate care and support. There was a 70% increase in calls to PANDA over the data collection period. Concerns recorded by PANDA staff from the initial risk assessment included inadequate treatment for a mental health condition (31%), women not feeling connected to their baby (31%), low functioning (26%) and general thoughts of suicide (18%). The Helpline experienced a significant increase in demand during the study period, and a substantial proportion of callers had complex mental health needs. PANDA plays a major role in providing support to a large number of women experiencing perinatal mental health problems.

Enhancing communication skills for telehealth: development and implementation of a Teach-Back intervention for a national maternal and child health helpline in Australia

BackgroundTelehealth professionals require advanced communication skills, in part to compensate for lack of visual cues. Teach-Back is a best practice communication technique that has been recommended but not previously evaluated for consumer telehealth. We aimed to implement Teach-Back at a national maternal and child health telephone helpline. We describe the intervention and report telenurse experiences learning to use Teach-Back.MethodsWe identified barriers (time, knowledge, skills, beliefs) and enablers (self-reflection) to using Teach-Back, and developed a novel training program to address these, guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework. We engaged maternal and child health telenurses to participate in a “communication skills” study. The intervention had two key components: guided self-reflection and a Teach-Back skills workshop. For the duration of the 7-week study nurses completed brief online surveys following each call, reflecting on both the effectiveness of their communication and perceived caller understanding. At the end of each shift they reflected on what worked well. Teach-Back knowledge, skills, and beliefs were addressed in a 2-h workshop using videos, discussion, and role play. We explored nurses’ experiences of the intervention in focus groups and interviews; and analysed transcripts and comments from the self-reflection surveys using the Framework method. This study forms part of a larger evaluation conducted in 2016.ResultsIn total 16 nurses participated: 15 were trained in Teach-Back, and 13 participated in focus groups or interviews. All engaged with both self-reflection and Teach-Back, although to differing extents. Those who reported acquiring Teach-Back skills easily limited themselves to one or two Teach-Back phrases. Nurses reported that actively self-reflecting (including on what they did well) was useful both for developing Teach-Back skills and analysing effectiveness of the techniques. Most wanted more opportunity to learn how their colleagues manage Teach-Back in different situations, and more visual reminders to use Teach-Back.ConclusionsOur theory-informed intervention successfully enabled nurses to use Teach-Back. Guided self-reflection is a low-resource method aligned with nurse professional identity that can facilitate Teach-Back skills learning, and could also be applied to other advanced communication skills for telehealth. Listening to multiple workplace-specific examples of Teach-Back is recommended for future training.Trial registrationACTRN12616000623493 Registered 15 May 2016. Retrospectively registered.

Understanding Revenge Pornography: A National Survey of Police Officers and Staff in England and Wales.

Online abuse, facilitated via social media and mobile technologies, has recently attracted considerable academic attention. The nonconsensual sharing of intimate images-revenge pornography-can have a devastating effect on victims, is a global problem, and constitutes interpersonal violence. The national helpline in the United Kingdom has now received over 7,000 calls. In the United Kingdom, new legislation making revenge pornography a crime was introduced in 2014, yet the police do not always respond appropriately to victims. This article presents the findings of a national online survey of police understanding of revenge pornography, undertaken in the United Kingdom in March 2017. The study set out to investigate police knowledge of revenge pornography legislation, their confidence in responding to cases of revenge pornography, and what level of training they had received. A total of 783 members of the police force responded to the survey and, to the authors' knowledge, this the first study to seek to quantify the understanding of revenge pornography by police officers and staff in England and Wales. The findings suggest that the police in the United Kingdom have a limited understanding of revenge pornography legislation and lack confidence both in investigating cases and in effectively responding to victims. The implications of the study demonstrate that there is an urgent need for training across police forces to ensure that cases of revenge pornography are appropriately responded to, victims are safeguarded, and offenders brought to justice.

Telephone health services in the field of rare diseases: a qualitative interview study examining the needs of patients, relatives, and health care professionals in Germany

BackgroundRare diseases are, by definition, very serious and chronic diseases with a high negative impact on quality of life. Approximately 350 million people worldwide live with rare diseases. The resulting high disease burden triggers health information search, but helpful, high-quality, and up-to-date information is often hard to find. Therefore, the improvement of health information provision has been integrated in many national plans for rare diseases, discussing the telephone as one access option. In this context, this study examines the need for a telephone service offering information for people affected by rare diseases, their relatives, and physicians.MethodsIn total, 107 individuals participated in a qualitative interview study conducted in Germany. Sixty-eight individuals suffering from a rare disease or related to somebody with rare diseases and 39 health care professionals took part. Individual interviews were conducted using a standardized semi-structured questionnaire. Interviews were analysed using the qualitative content analysis, triangulating patients, relatives, and health care professionals. The fulfilment of qualitative data processing standards has been controlled for.ResultsOut of 68 patients and relatives and 39 physicians, 52 and 18, respectively, advocated for the establishment of a rare diseases telephone service. Interviewees expected a helpline to include expert staffing, personal contact, good availability, low technical barriers, medical and psychosocial topics of counselling, guidance in reducing information chaos, and referrals. Health care professionals highlighted the importance of medical topics of counselling—in particular, differential diagnostics—and referrals.ConclusionsTherefore, the need for a national rare diseases helpline was confirmed in this study. Due to limited financial resources, existing offers should be adapted in a stepwise procedure in accordance with the identified attributes.

National Cancer Information Service in Italy: an information points network as a new model for providing information for cancer patients.

The international literature data report that good information and communication are fundamental components of a therapeutic process. They contribute to improve the patient-health care professional relationship, to facilitate doctor-patient relationships, therapeutic compliance and adherence, and to the informed consent in innovative clinical trials. We report the results of a multicentric national initiative that developed a 17-information-structure network: 16 Information Points located in the major state-funded certified cancer centers and general hospitals across Italy and a national Help-line at the nonprofit organization AIMaC (the Italian oncologic patients, families and friends association), and updated the already existing services with the aim to create the National Cancer Information Service (SION). The project is the result of a series of pilot and research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Health. The Information Service model proposed is based on some fundamental elements: 1) human interaction with experienced operators, adequately trained in communication and information, complemented with 2) virtual interaction (Help line, Internet, blog, forum and social network); 3) informative material adequate for both scientific accuracy and communicative style; 4) adequate locations for appropriate positioning and privacy (adequate visibility); 5) appropriate advertising. First results coming from these initiatives contributed to introduce issues related to "Communication and Information to patients" as a "Public Health Instrument" to the National Cancer Plan approved by the Ministry of Health for the years 2010-2012.

“Basically it's the Usual Whole Teen Girl Thing”: Stage‐of‐Life Categories on a Children and Young People's Helpline

This article explores the practices of membership categorization in the interactions of clients and counselors on a national Australian helpline (Kids Helpline [KHL]) for children and young persons. Our focus is on membership categories drawn from three membership category devices (MCDs): stage‐of‐life (SOL), age, and family. Analysis draws on data across different contact modalities—email and web‐counseling sessions—to examine how category‐generated features are relevantly occasioned, attended to, and managed by the parties in the course of interaction. This shows clients' use of MCDs in presenting their trouble and building a relevant case for their grievance. By examining counselors' subsequent receipts of the clients' complaints, we are able to trace some of the cultural knowledge that the clients' categorizations make relevant to the counselors. Moreover, the analysis demonstrates how the inherent flexibility of MCDs allows counselors to exploit these same categorial resources and to re‐specify the clients' trouble in a more positive fashion to accomplish counseling work. In explicating how taken‐for‐granted notions of the lifespan as well as of family relations are mobilized by participants in KHL's sessions, the findings contribute to previous studies of social interaction in counseling, and to research on social identity and categorization more broadly.

Preliminary evidence for the role of newsprint media in encouraging males to make contact with helplines

AbstractThis study explored the preliminary evidence for a relationship between constructive and affirming newsprint stories about depression or anxiety in males and use of helpline services by males. With the help of a Consumer Reference Group, we identified ten positive newsprint stories about males and depression or anxiety. We then obtained phone contact data from four national helplines in Australia: Lifeline, MensLine Australia, SANE Australia, and beyondblue. For each contact, we extracted the date, location and gender of the caller. Poisson regression analysis was used to determine the change in contact volume in the two weeks following each story, as compared to the two weeks prior to the story. Contact volume from males increased significantly in the two weeks after four of the ten stories, decreased after one story with no change after five of the stories. The stories that were associated with increased contacts were about men (including publicly revered role models) that male readers could ide...

Medication-related calls received by a national telenursing triage and advice service in Australia: a retrospective cohort study

BackgroundTelenursing triage and advice services are increasingly being used to deliver health advice. Medication-related queries are common, however little research has explored the medication-related calls made to these services. The aim of this study was to examine the profile of medication-related calls to a national telenursing triage and advice service and the medications involved.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study of medication-related calls received by Australia’s national helpline (healthdirect helpline) in 2014, which provides free advice from registered nurses. We examined the volume of medication-related calls over time, user profiles for patients and callers, and call characteristics and we also investigated medications involved in the calls by their generic names and therapeutic classes.ResultsOf 675,774 calls, 3.8% (n = 25,744) were medication-related, which was the largest category of calls. The average call length was 10 min. Over half of callers (55.4%) were advised to deliver self-care. Of 7,459 calls where the callers reported they did not know what to do prior to calling, 56.8% were advised to self-care and 3.5% were transferred to the Poisons Information Centre immediately. Of 1,277 calls where callers reported that they had originally intended to call an ambulance or attend an emergency department (ED), none were advised to do so. Advice most frequently requested was about analgesics and antipyretics, followed by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents.ConclusionThe telenursing triage and advice helpline offered quick and easily accessible advice, and provided reassurance to patients and callers with medication-related queries. The service also potentially diverted some patients from attending an ED unnecessarily.

Harnessing Emotional Connections to Improve Financial Decisions: Evaluating the Impact of Financial Education in Mainstream Media

This paper exploits the emotional connections and viewer attentiveness of mainstream media to evaluate the economic impact of financial education messages on debt management delivered through a popular television soap opera in South Africa. The study uses a symmetric encouragement design to compare outcomes of individuals who were randomly assigned to watch a soap opera with financial messages, Scandal! to those of individuals who were invited to watch a similar soap opera without financial messages, Muvhango. Both shows overlapped in evening primetime and had similar past viewership profiles. The financial storyline spanned two months and featured one of the leading characters of the show borrowing excessively and irresponsibly through hire-purchase, gambling, and ending up in financial distress; and eventually seeking help to find her way out. Two intermediate and one final follow-up surveys were conducted as part of the study. The analysis finds individuals assigned to watch Scandal had significantly higher financial knowledge of the issues highlighted in the soap opera storyline, in particular messages delivered by the leading character. On behavior, Scandal viewers were almost twice more likely to borrow from formal sources, less likely to engage in gambling, and less prone to enter hire purchase agreements. Messages promoting a national debt mediation helpline delivered by an external character did not sustain traction beyond immediate interest. Three qualitative focus groups highlight the importance of emotional connections with the leading character in motivating behavior change.

How do frequent users of crisis helplines differ from other users regarding their reasons for calling? Results from a survey with callers to Lifeline, Australia's national crisis helpline service.

Crisis helplines are designed to provide short-term support to people in an immediate crisis. However, there is a group of users who call crisis helplines frequently over an extended period of time. The reasons for their ongoing use remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in the reasons for calling between frequent and other users of crisis helplines. This was achieved by examining the findings from a brief survey completed by callers to Lifeline Australia at the end of their call between February and July 2015. In the survey, callers reported on their socio-demographics, reasons for their current call and number of calls made in the past month. Survey respondents were categorised as frequent, episodic and one-off users, and analyses were conducted using ordered logistic regression. Three hundred and fifteen callers completed the survey, which represented 57% of eligible callers. Twenty-two per cent reported calling 20 times or more in the past month (frequent users), 51% reported calling between 2 and 19 times (episodic users) and 25% reported calling once (one-off users). Two per cent were unable to recall the number of calls they made in the past month. Frequent users reported similar reasons for calling as other users but they were more likely to call regularly to talk about their feelings [OR=6.0; 95% CI: 3.7-9.8]. This pattern of service use is at odds with the current model of care offered by crisis helplines which is designed to provide one-off support. There is a need to investigate further the factors that drive frequent users to call crisis helplines regularly.

The role of a national fostering helpline in the recruitment and retention of foster carers: implications for policy and fostering practice

There is a shortfall of foster carers currently in England as the number of children in care is rising faster than the number of foster carers. Supporting foster carers in their role of providing safe nurturing environments for children in the looked after system is crucial in ensuring their recruitment and retention. This article reports on an evaluation of a national fostering helpline, Fosterline England, which provides independent, impartial advice to carers on a range of concerns. Findings suggest that the provision of a helpline service can influence foster carers’ motivation to enter or stay in fostering. However, it is only one factor that can make a difference. Improvements to working practices in fostering are needed, including more effective communication with and between professionals.

P78 - What are the concerns of people living with HCV or HBV in France in 2015? Data from French national helpline on hepatitis, Hépatites Info Service

P78 - What are the concerns of people living with HCV or HBV in France in 2015? Data from French national helpline on hepatitis, Hépatites Info Service