Abstract
A model of volunteer participation in a community mental health center emergency and reception service is presented and tested by comparing the telephone counseling effectiveness of volunteers and community mental health professionals. Experienced and inexperienced volunteers, professionals, and control subjects responded to simulated telephone crisis calls that were taperecorded and replayed for ratings along seven scales which assessed various dimensions of counseling effectiveness. The results suggested that carefully selected and trained volunteers can function as effectively as professional staff in providing supportive and emergency telephone services for distressed callers and community mental health center clients.
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Ms. George is a former volunteer and former cocoordinator of the Ben Gordon Community Mental Health Center Crisis Line. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Drs. David O. Hill and Seymore Simon to the experimental design of this study, and the contributions of James W. Graves, Marilyn O'Hair, Dr. Len Pecilunas, seminar students of the Community Mental Health Program at Northern Illinois University, and members of the 1970 Community Mental Health Board of DeKalb County to the design of the emergency and reception service.
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O'Donnell, J.M., George, K. The use of volunteers in a community mental health center emergency and reception service: A comparative study of professional and lay telephone counseling. Community Ment Health J 13, 3–12 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01419910
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01419910