Citation

Lester D. Crisis Interv. 1970; 2(2): 47-51.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1970, Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The suicide-prevention center in Buffalo maintains a 24-hour telephone service for people who are in need of advice or who are in a crisis situation. Among calls received by the center are some which the center labels as "nuisance" calls.8 These calls are defined in the following way. During the day a receptionist answers the telephone with the words "Suicide and crisis service. May I help you?" The caller may hang up or may remain listening in silence. He may respond with a brief statement such as "No," I'm going to kill myself," or "Screw you" and then hang up. If the caller responds seriously the receptionist will transfer the call to a counselor. The caller may hang up while the call is being transferred or he may respond to the counselor in the way described above. At night incoming calls are taken directly by the counselor.

These "nuisance" calls differ from "serious" calls in that the caller does not present a problem to the counselor and ask for a solution. "Serious" calls may indeed include pranksters, but they are characterized by an interchange of statements between the caller and the counselor. (In fact, we have no way of knowing whether problems presented to the counselor are valid or fraudulent just from one telephone conversation.) Of course, some of the calls defined here as "nuisance" calls may be from patients or potential patients who lack the courage to begin an interchange with a counselor. This may be true of calls classified as "hang-ups" (no words exchanged) but it is less likely to be true of the obscene calls. The "nuisance" calls are defined as a nuisance by the receiver of the call (in the present instance, the Suicide Prevention Center) and the definition does not take into account the intent of the caller. This parallels the definition of a nuisance call used by those investigating such calls received by the general population (Murray, 1967).

The rate of incoming nuisance calls at the center was high and it presented an opportunity to analyze the type of calls into simple categories in a situation that allowed immediate documentation of the call in terms of time of day, date, type of call, word spoken (verbatim), and sex of caller.

Language: en