Topic > Telephone Crisis Intervention in Psychology

During World War II, mental health professionals (psychiatrists and psychologists) began to find extreme cases of “battle fatigue” in soldiers who had participated in World War I . Given the urgency of sending them to the next war as quickly as possible, mental specialists began to treat them with a targeted approach. This targeted approach is known as “crisis intervention”; concept introduced by Lemberger Freiwilligern in the 19th century. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original EssayAccording to Slaiku (1990) cited in Beck (2007), a crisis is defined as “a temporary state of upset and disorganization, characterized primarily by an individual's inability to deal with a particular situation using usual methods of problem solving and by the potential for a radically positive or negative outcome.” Therefore, crisis intervention is a branch of clinical psychology whose core tools are focused on treating clients “…who are experiencing traumatic life events or are in one. state of acute crisis". After the Second World War, many crisis intervention organizations had been opened, examples of which were the Anti-Suicide Department of the Salvation Army in 1906 in London, the National Save-a-life League in New York City in 1906 and the Suicide Prevention Center in the early 1950s in Los Angeles. The first emergency telephone line was established by the National Save-a-life League. Although crisis hotlines existed, with the opening of the Center for Suicide Prevention, telephone crisis intervention hotlines, or crisis intervention hotlines, began to be widespread in over United States. These first jokes had suicide as their main objective. These lines have started to have a great demand for other topics or other types of crises (not just suicide). Therefore, organizations and the government began to open new hotlines for other types of crises, such as rape hotlines, drug abuse hotlines, and teen hotlines. Currently, approximately 34-45 million emergency calls are made each year. Additionally, there are significant differences between each hotline; the differences are related to procedures or techniques. The main focus of the essay is telephone intervention in a crisis: advantages, disadvantages and techniques used for this. These techniques are proposed by James and Gilliland in their book “Crisis Intervention Strategies”. One of the biggest benefits of using crisis hotlines is convenience. Telephones simplify the opportunity by making the service available 24/7 and allowing the person to call from anywhere. Another advantage is anonymity; users of these services often experience feelings related to shame, guilt, guilt or embarrassment. Thanks to anonymity, customers are more likely to use the service. Furthermore, the cost-effectiveness is a huge advantage. For both users and organizations, crisis hotlines are cost-effective. Finally, the scope is broader; therefore, rural communities without mental health services can receive this type of help. On the other hand, the disadvantages are related to the dependence “on the content, tone of voice, speed of tone and emotional content of the customer”. Additionally, the provider must have developed verbal skills to stabilize the client. As has been underlined, the strategies that will be described are proposed by James and Gilliland in "Crisis intervention strategies": The first.