1 School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
2 Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
Crisis. 2018 May;39(3):218-223. doi: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000490. Epub 2017 Nov 29.
Empathic engagement with distressed others can lead to elevated symptoms of psychological distress and functional impairment, which preclude helping professionals' delivery of optimal patient care. Whether telephone crisis support workers are impacted in a similar way is not currently reported in the literature.
This study examined the relationship between functional impairment and intentions to use recommended support skills in a representative national sample of 210 telephone crisis support workers.
Participants completed an online survey including measures of functional impairment and intentions to use recommended telephone crisis support skills with callers reporting suicidal ideation, symptoms of depression, and anxiety.
As a group, participants who experienced greater functional impairment during the past month reported significantly lower intentions to use recommended support skills with callers than those who reported lower functional impairment.
Future research is needed to clarify the extent to which results generalize to telephone crisis support workers from other organizations.
Results warrant further research to (a) identify determinants of telephone crisis support workers' functional impairment, and (b) for the deliberate management of telephone crisis support workers' functional impairment through developing and/or modifying existing service strategies to optimize workers' psychological well-being and delivery of support to callers.
与痛苦的他人产生共鸣可能会导致心理困扰和功能障碍的症状加重，从而妨碍帮助专业人员为患者提供最佳护理。目前文献中尚未报道电话危机支持人员是否以类似的方式受到影响。
本研究在一个具有代表性的全国电话危机支持人员样本（210 人）中，调查了功能障碍与使用推荐的电话危机支持技能的意图之间的关系。
参与者完成了一项在线调查，其中包括功能障碍和意图使用与报告自杀意念、抑郁和焦虑症状的来电者推荐的电话危机支持技能的测量。
作为一个群体，与那些报告功能障碍较低的参与者相比，过去一个月经历更大功能障碍的参与者报告使用推荐的支持技能与来电者的意图明显较低。
需要进一步的研究来澄清结果在多大程度上推广到来自其他组织的电话危机支持人员。
结果需要进一步研究，以确定电话危机支持人员功能障碍的决定因素，并通过制定和/或修改现有的服务策略来管理电话危机支持人员的功能障碍，以优化工作人员的心理健康和来电者的支持。
