Citation

Bryant RA, Harvey AG. Crisis 2000; 21(2): 90-94.

Affiliation

University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. r.bryant@unsw.edu.au

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, International Association for Suicide Prevention, Publisher Hogrefe Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11019484

Abstract

Counseling skills were evaluated in a telephone counseling service for Vietnam veterans. Thirty simulated crisis calls were made to telephone counselors by experienced clinical psychologists. The counselors' responses were rated on dimensions that indexed general counseling skills, knowledge of veteran needs, and provision of appropriate advice. Whereas the majority of callers demonstrated adequate counseling skills, many lacked knowledge of veterans' posttraumatic stress, common veteran terminology, and the nature of veterans' experiences. The findings suggest that telephone counseling services that target specific populations should employ comprehensive training to ensure that counselors possess adequate and relevant knowledge about callers and their presenting problems. The simulated caller paradigm appears to be an effective paradigm for training and evaluation of telephone counselors.

Language: en