Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Role Of Assertiveness In Telephone Crisis Supporter Well-Being And Service Provision, Coralie J. Wilson

Coralie J Wilson

Help-negation (reluctance to seek help as distress levels increase) occurs among Telephone Crisis Supporters (TCSs) who are exposed to suicidal, depressed and anxious callers, and impacts both personal wellbeing and TCSs intention to use recommended skills with callers (Kitchingman, Wilson, Caputi, Woodward, 2013). Assertiveness is a key clinical skill that facilitates the capacity to effectively and confidently deliver telephone crisis support. Due to the highly specific nature of the telephone counselling context, TCSs face challenges in communicating assertively and establishing of boundaries which are important in effective service provision and the maintenance of counsellor-wellbeing. This paper presents results of two …