Support Requirements and Effects of Supervision on Telephone Counsellors

McNamara, Justin; Gillies, Robyn M.

doi:10.1017/s1037291100002880

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Consistent with research to date (McNamara & Gillies, 2003;Mishara & Giroux, 1993;Rosenfield, 2002;Shier & Graham, 2011; this research illustrates the importance of staff having regular and accessible supervision in the form of shift supervision. The accessibility and timeliness of shift supervision rather than monthly group and personal supervision was found to be invaluable in supporting telephone counsellors.…”

Section: Supporting Telephone Counsellors' Subjective Wellbeingsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…First, consistent with extant research (Kinzel & Nanson, 2000;McNamara & Gillies, 2003), the participants in this study found the work of telephone counselling to be challenging at times. Rosenfield (1997) suggests two main characteristics of telephone counselling contribute to the difficulties experienced in performing this work; the callers' ability to end the call at any time and the absence of visual cues.…”

Section: Youth Counsellors' Experiences Of Telephone Counselling Worksupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Telephone counsellors may need to respond to traumatic crisis calls such as suicidal or self-harming callers in 'real-time' (Kinzel & Nanson, 2000;O'Sullivan & Whelan, 2011) and cope with having limited knowledge of client outcomes (Baron & Cohen, 1982;Cyr & Dowrick, 1991;Jaffe, 1984). These experiences may leave telephone counsellors feeling vulnerable, leading to increasing frustration and disillusionment (Kinzel & Nanson, 2000), exhaustion and fatigue (McNamara & Gillies, 2003), and re-experiencing of client trauma (Furlonger & Taylor, 2013).…”

Section: Who Is At Risk Of Reduced Subjective Wellbeing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research illustrates the importance of interpersonal support from supervisors and peers in shaping human service workers' experiences of their work (Rosenfield, 2003) and their subjective wellbeing (Shier & Graham, 2011;. Supervision has been found to be a significant form of social support for both face-to-face counsellors (Ross et al, 1989) and telephone counsellors (McNamara & Gillies, 2003;Mishara & Giroux, 1993). In face-to-face counselling supervision has been found to normalise and validate the potentially demanding and emotionally invasive impact of counselling certain clients, which can help to alleviate the impact of this work (Neumann & Gamble, 1995).…”

Section: The Role Of Interpersonal Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Youth counsellors' experiences of telephone counselling: a qualitative exploration

Davidson¹

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Telephone counselling is a well established medium of non-face-to-face mental health service delivery. Research to date has focussed on the delivery and effectiveness of therapy over the telephone. However, there has been little exploration of counsellor's experience of this work. The limited body of research about telephone counsellors' experiences portrays this work as challenging, exhausting and possibility traumatic for counsellors to perform. This is of significance considering the impact these factors can have on counsellors' subjective wellbeing, job satisfaction and turnover intentions.Research suggests that work related factors play a greater part than individual characteristics in shaping the experiences of telephone counsellors. However, there is limited understanding of the various types of work related factors that may shape these experiences.To address this gap in the extant literature this thesis explores youth counsellors' experiences of telephone counselling, and the range of work related factors that foster them. It examines telephone counsellors' general experiences of this work and those in relation to the work related factors of work environment, interpersonal relationships and specific aspects of the work. Unlike previous research, particular attention is paid to the spatial aspects of this work, such as the physical workplace environment and the mental space.To gain an in-depth understanding of telephone counsellors' experiences this research employed an instrumental case study approach and focused on youth counsellors in one telephone counselling service in New Zealand. Ten counsellors with 18 months to 9 years telephone counselling experience participated in this study, with the majority concurrently studying a human service related course at university. A multi-method design was adopted, including observations, in-depth interviews and reflective journals. To explore counsellors' experiences and how they are influenced by work related factors, both social constructionist and organisational theoretical lenses were adopted.The findings in this thesis indicate that overall counsellors enjoyed the work of telephone counselling despite its challenges. They experienced discrete aspects of their work as challenging, yet enjoyed their interactions with callers and the quality of relationships they had with colleagues and supervisors. Whilst counsellors experienced elements of the physical environment to be distracting and uncomfortable, they were able to exert some influence over the impact of these features by locating themselves in a preferred 3 counselling booth. Counsellors were found to enter into a distinct mental place when joining with their callers. Within this mental place they experienced a higher degree of proximity in counselling calls and greater distance in testing calls. The counsellors were able to manage the degree of closeness within their calls by their physical movement of leaning into counselling calls and leaning back from testing calls.This thesis makes a contribu...

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Section: Supporting Telephone Counsellors' Subjective Wellbeingsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Youth Counsellors' Experiences Of Telephone Counselling Worksupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Who Is At Risk Of Reduced Subjective Wellbeing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Role Of Interpersonal Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Youth counsellors' experiences of telephone counselling: a qualitative exploration

Davidson¹

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“…Phone consultation was presented by crisis intervention and suicide prevention centers early in 1960s and it was the necessity, accessibility and cheapness of this method that led to the increasing use of such services [4]. Today, there are lots of phone consultation lines all over the world providing different services such child advice lines and other services [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Validation of Supervision Scale in Phone Consultation in Iran

Dehghani¹,

Ghafoori²,

Panahandeh³

et al. 2017

OJMP

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The purpose of the present research is to develop and validate an instrument for supervision in phone consultation. Literature review and focus group discussion in the first stage led to the extraction of twenty items for the supervision scale. After the initial administration and the group work of the specialized team and upon receiving the feedback, the repetitive and overlapping items were deleted and ten important items were selected. Finally, the instrument was administered on 499 consolers of phone consultation in 19 provinces of Iran, consisted of male and female individuals cooperating in the counselor's voice. The consolers were trained and assessed by 96 supervisors. The supervisors consisted of male and female supervisors introduced as supervisors by the State Welfare Organization of Iran in different provinces all over the country. This study was conducted in State Welfare Organization of Iran. The exploratory factor analysis on the supervision scale revealed two dimensions: therapeutic alliance and intervention. The result showed the supervision scale was a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the consultation process in the semi-structured model of phone consultation. The finding is in line with previous studies in terms of therapeutic alliance, intervention in the semi-structured model of phone consultation.

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A Study of Callers to a Telephone Counseling Service

Dadfar

Lester

2019

Illness, Crisis & Loss

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Telephone counseling is an inexpensive method of providing counseling and crisis intervention in response to some of the mental health needs of the community. It can be provided at a counseling center or other unit with the purpose of providing mental health counseling for callers. The aim of this study was to investigate types of problems and interventions for callers at a telephone counseling service in Tehran, Iran. The data were collected using the records of 82 callers to the Telephone Counseling Center of the School of Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health-Tehran Institute of Psychiatry, affiliated with Iran University of Medical Sciences. The mean the number of calls made by callers was 1.53. The most common problems presented were marital and family conflicts (28.4%), mood disorders (24.3%), interpersonal and communication problems (17%), and behavioral problems of children (15.8%). Counselors offered psychosocial/educational advice (36.5%), recommendations for taking medications (26.8%), recommendations for in-person/individual counseling or family counseling (25.6%), and behavior therapy techniques (17%). Recommendations are made for the evaluation, structure, and process of telephone counseling services and for training telephone counselors in Iran.

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Support Requirements and Effects of Supervision on Telephone Counsellors

Cited by 4 publications

References 26 publications

Youth counsellors' experiences of telephone counselling: a qualitative exploration

Youth counsellors' experiences of telephone counselling: a qualitative exploration

Development and Validation of Supervision Scale in Phone Consultation in Iran

A Study of Callers to a Telephone Counseling Service

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