Recognizing the importance of digital communication, major suicide prevention helplines have started offering crisis intervention by chat. To date there is little evidence supporting the effectiveness of crisis chat services. To evaluate the reach and outcomes of the 113Online volunteer-operated crisis chat service, 526 crisis chat logs were studied, replicating the use of measures that were developed to study telephone crisis calls. Reaching a relatively young population of predominantly females with severe suicidality and (mental) health problems, chat outcomes for this group were found to be comparable to those found for crisis calls to U.S. Lifeline Centers in 2003-2004, with similar but not identical associations with specific helpers' styles and attitudes. Our findings support a positive effect of the 113Online chat service, to be enhanced by practice standards addressing an apparent lack of focus on the central issue of suicidality during chats, as well as by the development of best practices specific for online crisis intervention.

Integrated speaking tasks requiring test takers to read and/or listen to stimulus texts and to incorporate their content into oral performances are now used in large-scale, high-stakes tests, including the TOEFL iBT. These tasks require test takers to identify, select, and combine relevant source text information to recognize key relationships between source text ideas, and to organize and transform information. Despite being central to evaluations of validity, relationships between stimulus content, task demands, and the oral discourse produced by test takers are yet to be empirically scrutinized to an adequate degree. In this study, we focus on a TOEFL iBT reading–listening–speaking task, applying discourse analytic measures developed by Frost, Elder and Wigglesworth (2012) to 120 oral performances to examine (a) the integration of source text ideas by test takers across three proficiency levels, and (b) the appropriateness of content-related criteria in the TOEFL integrated speaking rubric. We then combine analyses of these aspects of performances with a qualitative analysis of the generic structure and semantic profiles of stimulus texts to explore relationships between stimulus text properties and oral performances. Findings suggest that the extent to which content-related rating scale criteria distinguish between proficiency levels is contingent on stimulus text properties, with important implications for construct definitions and task design.

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The emergence of peer specialists with histories of suicidality in mental health care services is a recent but scarcely researched societal phenomenon. The current study aimed to explore how peer specialists who have experienced suicidality (either attempted suicide or suicidal ideation) use their experiences to contribute to suicide prevention in mental health care services. Qualitative interviews with 20 peer specialists who have personally dealt with suicidality in their past were conducted. Interviewees perceived their work to have unique value in terms of their approach to making contact with suicidal care consumers on an emotional level, which was perceived to lead to less reluctance on the part of suicidal care consumers to talk about suicidality, as well as affect feelings of being acknowledged and heard. However, the lack of professional distance was perceived to carry several risks, including burdening clients with the peer specialists' own suicidal experiences, perceived reluctance of coworkers to let peer specialists work with suicidal clients, and the burden of working with suicidal clients for the peer specialists. Specific conditions that were perceived to be needed in order to work with suicidal clients consisted of personal distance to own process of recovery and suicidality, establishing boundaries with the team or colleagues for the peer specialists' work concerning suicide risk assessment, safety, privacy, and sharing responsibility. Further discussion between mental health care clinicians and peer specialists regarding the role of the peer specialist in suicide prevention is needed to further clarify and optimize their role.