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- Research Highlights - 2001
- Hotline lifeline
Hotline lifeline
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| Research team: |
| Dr Robert King (School of Medicine), Emeritus Professor Barry Nurcombe, (School of Medicine), Professor Len Bickman (Vanderbilt University), Leanne Hides (School of Medicine), Wendy Reid (Kids Help Line) |
| Funding: |
| 1999-2000 Commonwealth National Youth Suicide Prevention strategy ($120,000) |
| Email/Web link: |
| robertk@psychiatry.uq.edu.au |
| Faculty of Health Sciences |
In one of three major reports to the Federal Government in 2000, the School of Medicine's Dr Robert King and Professor Barry Nurcombe, and Professor Len Bickman from Vanderbilt University in the United States, proposed the hotline would help break down barriers for access to mental health services for young people.
The researchers have just completed a two-year analysis of the Kids Help Line for the Commonwealth's National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy in which they found many young people feared being branded a "nutter" or "psycho" if they used mental health services.
More than 2000 young people aged between 15 and 24 participated in the study through focus groups, telephone surveys and questionnaires.
The researchers' brief was to evaluate several areas of the Kids Help Line, including whether counsellors would benefit from specialist training, whether extra counsellors were required and how best to promote the service to young people.
"We surveyed young people we knew to be at greater risk of suicide as well as a low-risk group," Dr King said.
The researchers found young people across the board wanted telephone counsellors to be supportive and to take their experiences seriously.
"They also wanted counsellors to take a more active role, in other words to talk them out of their suicidality," Dr King said.
"However, the young people were uneasy about being referred to mental health services by telephone counsellors and this was more true of those who had not used such services in the past.
"They said they feared they would be branded as 'nutters' or 'psychos' and be seen as a failure by themselves and friends. They also feared a loss of control, that they would be carted off to a mental hospital and put on drugs.
"This finding was supported by our interviews with Kids Help Line counsellors who said they were often reluctant to refer suicidal young people to mental health services because they might hang up at the suggestion."
Dr King said the results suggested that while an excellent network of mental health services was available for young people, negative perceptions by young people were a barrier to access.
"Most of the young people surveyed were very comfortable with using an anonymous hotline as loss of control and perceived stigma was not an issue. They felt safe and were happy to talk to a counsellor in this way," he said.
"A hotline staffed by mental health workers would help to bridge the gap between telephone counselling provided by Kids Help Line and specialist treatment for the small but important minority of callers who need mental health services."
