The impact of caller gender on telephone crisis-helpline workers' interpretation of suicidality in caller vignettes

Authors

Tara Hunt, University of Wollongong, Centre for Mental Illness in Nowra District: Goals and PreventionFollow
Coralie J. Wilson, University of Wollongong, Centre for Mental Illness in Nowra District: Goals and Prevention, University of MelbourneFollow
Peter Caputi, University of WollongongFollow
Ian G. Wilson, University of WollongongFollow
Alan Woodward, Centre for Mental Illness in Nowra District: Goals and Prevention, University of Melbourne, Lifeline Australia, Suicide Prevention Australia

RIS ID

127136

Publication Details

Hunt, T., Wilson, C. J., Caputi, P., Wilson, I. & Woodward, A. (2018). The impact of caller gender on telephone crisis-helpline workers' interpretation of suicidality in caller vignettes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15 (4), 831-1-831-15.

Abstract

Telephone crisis-line workers (TCWs) are trained in a variety of techniques and skills to facilitate the identification of suicidal callers. One factor that may influence the implementation of these skills is gender. This study used an experimental design to explore whether helpline callers being identified as male or female is associated with TCWs' ratings of callers' potential for suicide risk and TCWs' intention to use support- or intervention-oriented skills with callers. Data were collected using an online self-report survey in an Australian sample of 133 TCWs. The results suggest that under some circumstances the callers' gender might influence TCWs' intention to use intervention-oriented skills with the caller. Implications for the training of telephone crisis workers, and those trained in suicide prevention more broadly are discussed.