“…Telephone counselling services are an integral part of community mental health care, as a result of their non-institutional orientation, easy accessibility and guaranteed anonymity (Coman, Burrows, & Evans, 2001;Hornblow, 1986). Despite their wide acceptability, empirical evidence for the effectiveness of telephone counselling services is lacking, often as a result of difficulties in conducting research in this area (Coman et al, 2001;Hornblow, 1986;Lester, 1995). Older studies focused largely on crisis intervention and measures of the effectiveness of such services included suicide rates, counsellor performance, counsellor satisfaction, caller satisfaction, change in caller's knowledge or behavior, caller compliance with counsellors' recommendations or suggestions, utilisation rates, and administrative criteria (Auerbach & Kilmann, 1977;Hornblow, 1986).…”