Turkington Robin, Mulvenna Maurice, Bond Raymond, Ennis Edel, Potts Courtney, Moore Ciaran, Hamra Louise, Morrissey Jacqui, Isaksen Mette, Scowcroft Elizabeth, O'Neill Siobhan
School of Computing, Ulster University, Newtownabbey, United Kingdom.
School of Psychology, Ulster University, Coleraine, United Kingdom.
JMIR Ment Health. 2020 Nov 6;7(11):e22984. doi: 10.2196/22984.
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 to be an international pandemic in March 2020. While numbers of new confirmed cases of the disease and death tolls are rising at an alarming rate on a daily basis, there is concern that the pandemic and the measures taken to counteract it could cause an increase in distress among the public. Hence, there could be an increase in need for emotional support within the population, which is complicated further by the reduction of existing face-to-face mental health services as a result of measures taken to limit the spread of the virus.
The objective of this study was to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic has had any influence on the calls made to Samaritans Ireland, a national crisis helpline within the Republic of Ireland.
This study presents an analysis of calls made to Samaritans Ireland in a four-week period before the first confirmed case of COVID-19 (calls=41,648, callers=3752) and calls made to the service within a four-week period after a restrictive lockdown was imposed by the government of the Republic of Ireland (calls=46,043, callers=3147). Statistical analysis was conducted to explore any differences between the duration of calls in the two periods at a global level and at an hourly level. We performed k-means clustering to determine the types of callers who used the helpline based on their helpline call usage behavior and to assess the impact of the pandemic on the caller type usage patterns.
The analysis revealed that calls were of a longer duration in the postlockdown period in comparison with the pre-COVID-19 period. There were changes in the behavior of individuals in the cluster types defined by caller behavior, where some caller types tended to make longer calls to the service in the postlockdown period. There were also changes in caller behavior patterns with regard to the time of day of the call; variations were observed in the duration of calls at particular times of day, where average call durations increased in the early hours of the morning.
The results of this study highlight the impact of COVID-19 on a national crisis helpline service. Statistical differences were observed in caller behavior between the prelockdown and active lockdown periods. The findings suggest that service users relied on crisis helpline services more during the lockdown period due to an increased sense of isolation, worsening of underlying mental illness due to the pandemic, and reduction or overall removal of access to other support resources. Practical implications and limitations are discussed.
世界卫生组织于2020年3月宣布新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情为国际大流行。虽然该疾病的新增确诊病例数和死亡人数每天都在以惊人的速度上升，但人们担心这场大流行及其应对措施可能导致公众的痛苦增加。因此，民众对情感支持的需求可能会增加，而由于为限制病毒传播而采取的措施，现有的面对面心理健康服务减少，这使得情况更加复杂。
本研究的目的是确定新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情是否对爱尔兰共和国的全国危机求助热线“撒玛利亚人爱尔兰”的来电产生了任何影响。
本研究对新型冠状病毒肺炎首例确诊病例出现前四周内拨打“撒玛利亚人爱尔兰”的电话（来电41648次，来电者3752人）以及爱尔兰共和国政府实施严格封锁后四周内拨打该服务的电话（来电46043次，来电者3147人）进行了分析。进行统计分析以探讨两个时期在全球层面和每小时层面来电时长的任何差异。我们进行了k均值聚类，以根据求助热线使用行为确定使用该求助热线的来电者类型，并评估疫情对来电者类型使用模式的影响。
分析显示，与新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情前相比，封锁后时期的来电时长更长。在由来电者行为定义的聚类类型中，个体行为发生了变化，一些来电者类型在封锁后时期倾向于拨打更长时间的求助热线。来电时间的来电者行为模式也有变化；在一天中的特定时间观察到来电时长的差异，凌晨时段的平均来电时长增加。
本研究结果突出了新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情对全国危机求助热线服务的影响。在封锁前和实际封锁期间，来电者行为存在统计学差异。研究结果表明，由于隔离感增加、疫情导致潜在精神疾病恶化以及获得其他支持资源的机会减少或完全消除，服务使用者在封锁期间更多地依赖危机求助热线服务。讨论了实际意义和局限性。
