Academic literature on the topic 'Telephone counselling'

INTRODUCTION: Human service practitioners who work over the telephone are physically invisible to their clients and this invisibility shapes their work. Existing literature suggests that physical invisibility, coupled with anonymity and the immediacy of service provision are defining features of telephone counselling. However, little research has explored how telephone counsellors experience these features in any real depth.METHODOLOGY: This article reports on a case study conducted at a youth helpline in Aotearoa New Zealand. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 practitioners on their experiences of telephone counselling work. One key finding from this case study is discussed: the impact of invisibility and anonymity.FINDINGS: Findings indicate that practitioners’ experiences of delivering telephone counselling are more divergent than those presented in extant literature. While telephone counsellors face challenges delivering non-face-to-face counselling support, the physical invisibility of this medium, coupled with a supportive work environment can also provide potential benefits to counsellors.CONCLUSIONS: Counsellors’ experiences of telephone counselling work appear to be more nuanced than traditionally understood. While practitioners may experience a range of possible challenges in delivering telephone counselling, such as responding to hoax and abusive callers, they also experience benefits such feeling relaxed, and supported by colleagues and supervisors. Management practices, such as flexible rules and accessible supervision, can help practitioners manage the impact working non-face-to-face with clients. Given the ongoing popularity of telephone counselling, further research is needed on the working conditions that promote practitioner wellbeing and job satisfaction.

This exploratory study examined outcomes of single telephone counselling calls, with a self-selected sample of 38 clients from a family counselling agency. The sample was interviewed by telephone at two days and six weeks after the call to assess crisis counselling outcomes in affect, identification of the problem and action taken, and client equilibrium. Repeated measures of the 'perceptual concordance' of counsellor and client were taken over a period of six weeks, assessing levels of concordance between client and counsellor about perceptions of counselling, and client equilibrium. The sufficiency of a single counselling session was also assessed. 'Perceptual concordance' was suggested by reduced client stress, high levels of agreement between client and counsellor in the identification of the problem and agreed action, and satisfaction with the counselling. Positive indicators of restored client equilibrium included a maintenance of lower stress levels, changes in behaviour, improvement in perceptions of the seriousness of the problem, satisfaction with life and with the counselling. Further research of equilibrium as a concept, and an indicator of crisis resolution is warranted. The sufficiency of a single session of counselling was supported by 56% of clients. The variety of services used by clients as an outcome of the counselling suggests that it could be beneficial for telephone counselling agencies to offer a follow-up call. Verifying the agreed action and assessing equilibrium could be useful indicators of effective telephone counselling.

The aim of this Australian Research Council Linkage doctoral project with industry partners UnitingCare-Lifeline Ballarat and Lifeline Australia was to investigate whether calls to Lifeline – a generalist telephone counselling and referral service – could be used as valid and reliable social indicators of health. The Lifeline Australia service receives approximately 1,000 calls a day and key details of each call are recorded on its Client Services Management Information System (CSMIS). A number of research questions directed this study: (1) What are the characteristics or attributes of callers to Lifeline?; (2) How do the patterns of calls to Lifeline vary spatially?; and (3) What is the statistical relationship between calls to Lifeline and other measures of community health? This thesis presents a detailed descriptive summary and analysis of Lifeline’s national CSMIS call data (N = 90,128 cases) from 01-04-2003 to 29-06-2003. It explores this and other sources of call data, such as the Telstra Exchange data, for their potential to be used as social indicators. The project created a model of generalist telephone counselling and referral use (MGTCRU). The MGTCRU was used as a theoretical base to a call rate indicator, named the Lifeline Indicator of Social Need (LISN), which reflects the community’s capacity to provide social support to its most socially isolated residents. The LISN was found to have useful attributes and a potential for use as a social indicator of community strength. The call rate indicator showed a statistically significant relationship with the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia, measures of socio-economic disadvantage, and suicide rates. However, the CSMIS database was found to have certain limitations. The thesis presents recommendations for this situation to be addressed. While acknowledging that there are limitations to telephone counselling call data it is clear that these call data can be used to create cost effective, rapid, reliable, and potentially valid social indicators. This thesis has made a number of significant empirical and theoretical contributions to knowledge on telephone counselling and referral. The descriptive summary of the CSMIS data provided in this thesis might be used in innovative ways by social researchers. The LISN could be used on its own or included in other social indices. The MGTCRU provides a theoretical framework for understanding telephone counselling and referral services use and may assist these services to organise their operations and meet the needs of their callers. This project may have particular application to a current upgrade of Lifeline Australia’s telephony and call data systems.
Doctor of Philosophy

The aim of this Australian Research Council Linkage doctoral project with industry partners UnitingCare-Lifeline Ballarat and Lifeline Australia was to investigate whether calls to Lifeline – a generalist telephone counselling and referral service – could be used as valid and reliable social indicators of health. The Lifeline Australia service receives approximately 1,000 calls a day and key details of each call are recorded on its Client Services Management Information System (CSMIS). A number of research questions directed this study: (1) What are the characteristics or attributes of callers to Lifeline?; (2) How do the patterns of calls to Lifeline vary spatially?; and (3) What is the statistical relationship between calls to Lifeline and other measures of community health? This thesis presents a detailed descriptive summary and analysis of Lifeline’s national CSMIS call data (N = 90,128 cases) from 01-04-2003 to 29-06-2003. It explores this and other sources of call data, such as the Telstra Exchange data, for their potential to be used as social indicators. The project created a model of generalist telephone counselling and referral use (MGTCRU). The MGTCRU was used as a theoretical base to a call rate indicator, named the Lifeline Indicator of Social Need (LISN), which reflects the community’s capacity to provide social support to its most socially isolated residents. The LISN was found to have useful attributes and a potential for use as a social indicator of community strength. The call rate indicator showed a statistically significant relationship with the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia, measures of socio-economic disadvantage, and suicide rates. However, the CSMIS database was found to have certain limitations. The thesis presents recommendations for this situation to be addressed. While acknowledging that there are limitations to telephone counselling call data it is clear that these call data can be used to create cost effective, rapid, reliable, and potentially valid social indicators. This thesis has made a number of significant empirical and theoretical contributions to knowledge on telephone counselling and referral. The descriptive summary of the CSMIS data provided in this thesis might be used in innovative ways by social researchers. The LISN could be used on its own or included in other social indices. The MGTCRU provides a theoretical framework for understanding telephone counselling and referral services use and may assist these services to organise their operations and meet the needs of their callers. This project may have particular application to a current upgrade of Lifeline Australia’s telephony and call data systems.
Doctor of Philosophy

Bibliography: leaves 94-99.
This study investigates factors which affect the motivation of volunteer telephone counsellors, including demographic variables as well as volunteers' subjective perceptions of the factors which have influenced their involvement. The study was conducted in two stages. The first consisted of a demographic analysis of two groups of counsellors from an organisation in the Western Cape, while the second stage involved a qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with respondents who were drawn from these groups. 446 volunteers were selected for demographic analysis, of whom 247 were the full complement of current counsellors in the organisation as of April, 1993, and 199 were ex-volunteers who had terminated their involvement during the preceding three years. Eight demographic variables were recorded for each volunteer: current age, gender, age on joining the organisation, educational level, religious orientation, marital and parental status and length of service. Volunteers were predominantly female (75%), and were on average middle-aged, well-educated, and Christian (64%). Approximately half of the group were married. Parents comprised 50% of the group. The average length of service was approximately five years. Length of service was analysed in relation to each of the other demographic variables in turn in order to discover which factors, if any, were implicated in volunteer turnover. Parental status was the only variable found to be significant in terms of length of service across both current and ex-volunteer groups. A regression analysis performed on the data set as a whole identified parental status as a significant predictor of length of service. The second stage of the study consisted of 23 in-depth interviews. Respondents ( 12 current volunteers, 11 ex-volunteers) were selected according to a purposive technique which took the form of a systematic, structured sampling strategy in order to maximize the diversity of obtained responses. A descriptive phenomenological perspective was adopted in order to tap the rich, subjective experiences of respondents. Interview data was analysed according to an inductive, constantly comparative approach. Findings based on respondents' self-report suggest that motivational factors underlying volunteer participation are multifaceted and complex, changing in nature ii and salience during the course of involvement (from initial contact with the organisation until termination of participation). Although self-serving motives seemed to play a major role in influencing participation, especially during the early stages of involvement, altruistic motives appeared to be important in sustaining on-going involvement. On the basis of findings which have emerged from the study, recommendations have been made as to possible strategies that could be adopted by the organisation to improve volunteer management. The most important of these concerns the implementation of a supervision and support structure for all active volunteers.

This master thesis reports on potentially useful applications for “The social layer concept”, consisting of a combination of telephone-based health advice-giving and dynamic marking of shared web pages, with the aim to contribute to the online health counselling domain. An experimental user study was performed to test a web marking tool prototype. The experimental tool was shown to be useful in helping clients focus on relevant health information and dynamic web marking does provide a useful and complementary service to telephone-based advice-giving. It was considered most useful for complex health advice-giving issues.

Bakgrund: Telefonrådgivning är idag en stor del av distriktssköterskans arbetsuppgifter i primärvården. Det är en komplex arbetsuppgift som innebär ett vårdmöte via telefon där distriktssköterskan ska kunna bedöma vårdbehov, brådskandegrad, ge egenvårdsråd och samordna med andra vårdgivare. För att patienten ska få en så korrekt bedömning av sitt vårdbehov som det går är det viktigt att distriktssköterskan får relevant information. Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att beskriva distriktssköterskans erfarenheter av att arbeta i telefonrådgivning i primärvården. Metod: Studien är kvalitativ intervjustudie med en induktiv ansats. Nio distriktssköterskor intervjuades i tre fokusgruppsintervjuer. Resultat: Ur analysen framkom sex övergripande kategorier vilka benämndes; Telefonrådgivning kan vara en stor utmaning, Arbetsmiljön i telefonrådgivningen har betydelse för kvaliteten på samtalet, För och nackdelar med datoriserat beslutsstöd, Kunskap och erfarenhet underlättar telefonrådgivningen, Kvalitet på samtal och bedömningar är viktigt, Samtal med tredje part kan påverka utfallet av samtalet. Konklusion: Denna studie har synliggjort utmaningar i telefonrådgivning vilka kan utgöra risker för patientsäkerheten och den personcentrerade vården. Resultatet kan bidra till att undvika felbedömningar vilket ökar patientsäkerheten och ger samhällsnytta.
Background: Telephone counselling is today a major part of the duties for a district nurse in primary care. It is a complex task that incorporates a care meeting via telephone where the district nurse should be able to assess care needs, urgency, give self care advice and coordinate with other care providers. In order for the patient to get a correct assessment of their care needs as it is possible, it is important that the district nurse receive relevant information. Aim: This study aims to describe the experience of working in telephone counselling for a district nurse in primary care. Method: The study is a qualitative interview study with an inductive approach. Nine district nurses where interviewed in three focus group interviews. Result: Six general categories were identified from the analysis, which were named; Telephone counselling can be a major challenge, The working environment in telephone counselling is important for the quality of the call, Pros and cons of computerized decision support, Knowledge and experience facilitates telephone counselling, Quality at calls and assessments are important and Conversations with third parties can affect the outcome of the call. Conclusion: This study has highlighted challenges in telephone counselling which may pose risks to patient safety and person-centred care. The result can help to avoid misjudgements, which increases patient safety and benefits society.

Additional social support has been advocated for socially disadvantaged pregnant women because they are at greater risk of experiencing adverse birth outcomes. Support may include advice and counselling (e.g. about nutrition, rest, stress management, or the use of alcohol), tangible assistance (e.g. transportation to clinic appointments, or household help), and emotional support (e.g. reassurance, or sympathetic listening). The additional social support may be delivered by multidisciplinary teams of healthcare workers or lay health workers during home visits, clinic appointments or by telephone.

Background Australia is a multi-cultural society with increasing rates of people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. On average, CALD groups have higher rates of tobacco use, lower participation in cancer screening programs, and poorer health outcomes than the general Australian population. Lower cancer screening and smoking cessation rates are due to differing cultural norms, health-related attitudes, and beliefs, and language barriers. Interventions can help address these potential barriers and increase tobacco cessation and cancer screening rates among CALD groups. Cancer Council NSW (CCNSW) aims to reduce the impact of cancer and improve cancer outcomes for priority populations including CALD communities. In line with this objective, CCNSW commissioned this rapid review of interventions implemented in Australia and comparable countries. Review questions This review aimed to address the following specific questions: Question 1 (Q1): What smoking cessation interventions have been proven effective in reducing or preventing smoking among culturally and linguistically diverse communities? Question 2 (Q2): What screening interventions have proven effective in increasing participation in population cancer screening programs among culturally and linguistically diverse populations? This review focused on Chinese-, Vietnamese- and Arabic-speaking people as they are the largest CALD groups in Australia and have high rates of tobacco use and poor screening adherence in NSW. Summary of methods An extensive search of peer-reviewed and grey literature published between January 2013-March 2022 identified 19 eligible studies for inclusion in the Q1 review and 49 studies for the Q2 review. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Levels of Evidence and Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tools were used to assess the robustness and quality of the included studies, respectively. Key findings Findings are reported by components of an intervention overall and for each CALD group. By understanding the effectiveness of individual components, results will demonstrate key building blocks of an effective intervention. Question 1: What smoking cessation interventions have been proven effective in reducing or preventing smoking among culturally and linguistically diverse communities? Thirteen of the 19 studies were Level IV (L4) evidence, four were Level III (L3), one was Level II (L2), none were L1 (highest level of evidence) and one study’s evidence level was unable to be determined. The quality of included studies varied. Fifteen tobacco cessation intervention components were included, with most interventions involving at least three components (range 2-6). Written information (14 studies), and education sessions (10 studies) were the most common components included in an intervention. Eight of the 15 intervention components explored had promising evidence for use with Chinese-speaking participants (written information, education sessions, visual information, counselling, involving a family member or friend, nicotine replacement therapy, branded merchandise, and mobile messaging). Another two components (media campaign and telephone follow-up) had evidence aggregated across CALD groups (i.e., results for Chinese-speaking participants were combined with other CALD group(s)). No intervention component was deemed of sufficient evidence for use with Vietnamese-speaking participants and four intervention components had aggregated evidence (written information, education sessions, counselling, nicotine replacement therapy). Counselling was the only intervention component to have promising evidence for use with Arabic-speaking participants and one had mixed evidence (written information). Question 2: What screening interventions have proven effective in increasing participation in population cancer screening programs among culturally and linguistically diverse populations? Two of the 49 studies were Level I (L1) evidence, 13 L2, seven L3, 25 L4 and two studies’ level of evidence was unable to be determined. Eighteen intervention components were assessed with most interventions involving 3-4 components (range 1-6). Education sessions (32 studies), written information (23 studies) and patient navigation (10 studies) were the most common components. Seven of the 18 cancer screening intervention components had promising evidence to support their use with Vietnamese-speaking participants (education sessions, written information, patient navigation, visual information, peer/community health worker, counselling, and peer experience). The component, opportunity to be screened (e.g. mailed or handed a bowel screening test), had aggregated evidence regarding its use with Vietnamese-speaking participants. Seven intervention components (education session, written information, visual information, peer/community health worker, opportunity to be screened, counselling, and branded merchandise) also had promising evidence to support their use with Chinese-speaking participants whilst two components had mixed (patient navigation) or aggregated (media campaign) evidence. One intervention component for use with Arabic-speaking participants had promising evidence to support its use (opportunity to be screened) and eight intervention components had mixed or aggregated support (education sessions, written information, patient navigation, visual information, peer/community health worker, peer experience, media campaign, and anatomical models). Gaps in the evidence There were four noteworthy gaps in the evidence: 1. No systematic review was captured for Q1, and only two studies were randomised controlled trials. Much of the evidence is therefore based on lower level study designs, with risk of bias. 2. Many studies provided inadequate detail regarding their intervention design which impacts both the quality appraisal and how mixed finding results can be interpreted. 3. Several intervention components were found to have supportive evidence available only at the aggregate level. Further research is warranted to determine the interventions effectiveness with the individual CALD participant group only. 4. The evidence regarding the effectiveness of certain intervention components were either unknown (no studies) or insufficient (only one study) across CALD groups. This was the predominately the case for Arabic-speaking participants for both Q1 and Q2, and for Vietnamese-speaking participants for Q1. Further research is therefore warranted. Applicability Most of the intervention components included in this review are applicable for use in the Australian context, and NSW specifically. However, intervention components assessed as having insufficient, mixed, or no evidence require further research. Cancer screening and tobacco cessation interventions targeting Chinese-speaking participants were more common and therefore showed more evidence of effectiveness for the intervention components explored. There was support for cancer screening intervention components targeting Vietnamese-speaking participants but not for tobacco cessation interventions. There were few interventions implemented for Arabic-speaking participants that addressed tobacco cessation and screening adherence. Much of the evidence for Vietnamese and Arabic-speaking participants was further limited by studies co-recruiting multiple CALD groups and reporting aggregate results. Conclusion There is sound evidence for use of a range of intervention components to address tobacco cessation and cancer screening adherence among Chinese-speaking populations, and cancer screening adherence among Vietnamese-speaking populations. Evidence is lacking regarding the effectiveness of tobacco cessation interventions with Vietnamese- and Arabic-speaking participants, and cancer screening interventions for Arabic-speaking participants. More research is required to determine whether components considered effective for use in one CALD group are applicable to other CALD populations.