Behavior of Callers to a Crisis Helpline Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Quantitative Data Analysis

Abstract

Background The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 to be an international pandemic in March 2020. While numbers of new confirmed cases of the disease and death tolls are rising at an alarming rate on a daily basis, there is concern that the pandemic and the measures taken to counteract it could cause an increase in distress among the public. Hence, there could be an increase in need for emotional support within the population, which is complicated further by the reduction of existing face-to-face mental health services as a result of measures taken to limit the spread of the virus. Objective The objective of this study was to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic has had any influence on the calls made to Samaritans Ireland, a national crisis helpline within the Republic of Ireland. Methods This study presents an analysis of calls made to Samaritans Ireland in a four-week period before the first confirmed case of COVID-19 (calls=41,648, callers=3752) and calls made to the service within a four-week period after a restrictive lockdown was imposed by the government of the Republic of Ireland (calls=46,043, callers=3147). Statistical analysis was conducted to explore any differences between the duration of calls in the two periods at a global level and at an hourly level. We performed k-means clustering to determine the types of callers who used the helpline based on their helpline call usage behavior and to assess the impact of the pandemic on the caller type usage patterns. Results The analysis revealed that calls were of a longer duration in the postlockdown period in comparison with the pre–COVID-19 period. There were changes in the behavior of individuals in the cluster types defined by caller behavior, where some caller types tended to make longer calls to the service in the postlockdown period. There were also changes in caller behavior patterns with regard to the time of day of the call; variations were observed in the duration of calls at particular times of day, where average call durations increased in the early hours of the morning. Conclusions The results of this study highlight the impact of COVID-19 on a national crisis helpline service. Statistical differences were observed in caller behavior between the prelockdown and active lockdown periods. The findings suggest that service users relied on crisis helpline services more during the lockdown period due to an increased sense of isolation, worsening of underlying mental illness due to the pandemic, and reduction or overall removal of access to other support resources. Practical implications and limitations are discussed.

Rapid Support for Older Adults during the Initial Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from a Geriatric Psychiatry Helpline

“…In accordance with other studies across Europe, most callers experienced changes in their daily life, with social isolation being considered a problem in a quarter of callers [26,27,30]. Interestingly, our results show that living alone proved to be a protective factor against anxiety symptoms, as individuals cohabitating with others reported higher levels of anxiety.…”

“…Similarly, an initial study in China revealed that young individuals were at higher risk of suffering from anxiety than older adults during the outbreak [16,18]. In line with disaster crisis literature, older victims previously showed lower anxiety, stress, and depression symptoms than younger individuals [16,18], with researchers attributing this to their greater life experience, crisis exposure or by having to face fewer responsibilities [26,27]. Further studies should longitudinally explore this protective effect of age and its consequences in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Further studies should investigate and systematically explore the efficacy and effect of teleservices intervention. Initial studies show promising results [26,27], with more intervention studies on their way [13,[31][32][33]. Third, our sample was limited, as advertised, to cater to older adults over the age of 65; therefore, age-related associations and differences must be treated with caution.…”

Mental health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic as revealed by helpline calls

“…However, monitoring public mental health is difficult because data are often patchy and low-frequency 1-3 . Here we complement established approaches by using data from helplines, which offer a real-time measure of 'revealed' distress and mental health concerns across a range of topics [4][5][6][7][8][9] . We collected data on 8 million calls from 19 countries, focusing on the COVID-19 crisis.…”

“…Using this approach in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, we documented the growth and composition of helpline calls as well as their pandemic-related determinants. Helplines take on particular relevance in a pandemic, when face-to-face contacts carry infection risks and may even be impossible owing to stay-at-home orders [4][5][6][7][8][9] . We collected data from 23 helplines in 14 European countries, the USA, China, Hong Kong, Israel and Lebanon.…”