my guess is [...] you could counterfactually save 1-5 more lives per day by volunteering and being great at your job.
I’m skeptical. That would mean that your average hotline volunteer is speaking to 1-5 new people per day who subsequently take their lives, but would not have if the call were handled better. This seems implausible purely on the basis that most suicide attempts fail (5-11% of people who ever attempt end up ever succeeding). Added to this, I suspect that some (most?) people who call are thinking about suicide but not literally about to do it, some (most?) are making multiple calls to the hotline, and that some of the worst cases may be possible to save today but will take their lives in a few months’ time. Basically, I suspect that each call that a volunteer successfully handles would be worth more like 0.001 or 0.01 of an averted suicide.
I did (non-suicide) helpline training once and was struck by how formalised it is. Volunteers were supposed to be listeners, reflecting the callers’ thoughts back to them and avoiding giving advice. This is likely a strategy to minimise the harm caused by layperson volunteers interacting with very vulnerable people. I would suspect that suicide hotlines have fairly rigid guidelines on how to handle calls, probably with more specific training on how to help the caller de-escalate their suicidal thoughts in the moment. My concern would be that this leaves little wiggle room for being “great at your job”, and anyone trying to be significantly more effective may actually do damage by going off-script.
Would love to hear from someone with direct experience!
That’s brilliant Stan what a great explanation! To clarify as well, it seems something like as a point estimate between 1 in 20 and 1 in 35 suicide attempts succeed, obviously a bit lower than the overall number of people who end up succeeding some after multiple attemps.
I’m skeptical. That would mean that your average hotline volunteer is speaking to 1-5 new people per day who subsequently take their lives, but would not have if the call were handled better. This seems implausible purely on the basis that most suicide attempts fail (5-11% of people who ever attempt end up ever succeeding). Added to this, I suspect that some (most?) people who call are thinking about suicide but not literally about to do it, some (most?) are making multiple calls to the hotline, and that some of the worst cases may be possible to save today but will take their lives in a few months’ time. Basically, I suspect that each call that a volunteer successfully handles would be worth more like 0.001 or 0.01 of an averted suicide.
I did (non-suicide) helpline training once and was struck by how formalised it is. Volunteers were supposed to be listeners, reflecting the callers’ thoughts back to them and avoiding giving advice. This is likely a strategy to minimise the harm caused by layperson volunteers interacting with very vulnerable people. I would suspect that suicide hotlines have fairly rigid guidelines on how to handle calls, probably with more specific training on how to help the caller de-escalate their suicidal thoughts in the moment. My concern would be that this leaves little wiggle room for being “great at your job”, and anyone trying to be significantly more effective may actually do damage by going off-script.
Would love to hear from someone with direct experience!
This answers my question, and I’m now pretty convinced being a volunteer is not that impactful. Thank you!
That’s brilliant Stan what a great explanation! To clarify as well, it seems something like as a point estimate between 1 in 20 and 1 in 35 suicide attempts succeed, obviously a bit lower than the overall number of people who end up succeeding some after multiple attemps.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0089944
https://www.uptodate.com/contents/suicidal-ideation-and-behavior-in-adults/abstract/19