PAST and FUTURE of TELEPHONE HELP
Presentation of Diana Rucli, Director of IFOTES, at the National Congress for the celebration of 40th anniversary of Palveleva puhelin in Finland – 9 October 2004
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning
Being here today with you at your congress on the occasion of your 40th anniversary is a great pleasure for me.
I give you my personal best wishes and I also bring to you the best wishes and the warmest regards from IFOTES president, Mr. Mark Milton, and from the International Committee of IFOTES, who met last time at the beginning of September in Aachen - Germany, where on September the 4th 400 volunteers from Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands participated in a big conference whose title was “Getting in touch, reaching people”.
This title was actually very suitable for our organisation, as one of the main objective of IFOTES is to promote the exchange of experiences amongst its national members and among TES volunteers, especially by organizing congresses, seminars andconferences which contribute to the quality of the services offered by its members.
Besides congresses, IFOTES’ objective is also to meet members in their countries and have a direct contact with the experiences of the TES working community of each member Federation, so I thank you very much for this invitation and opportunity to better know the work you are doing and to present what IFOTES is doing too.
I have been invited to talk to you about the past and future of telephone help from the standpoint of IFOTES. I will first share with you what IFOTES is and what is doing today. Then I will suggest new possible ways to develop our services in the future.
Few words about who we are:
2002 FIGURES
The history of IFOTES began in 1967, today:
• Over 500 Emotional Support hotline Centers
• 32 National Federations in 28 countries
• Over 4 million phone contacts every year
• 90,000 face to face conversations
• 15,000 internet contacts and exchanges
• 30,000 volunteer listeners carefully trained
• 600 professional workers coaching the volunteers and leading TES posts
Based on our experience, we are convinced that one of the most powerful ways to support people in distress, prevent suicide and develop emotional well-being is
1. to understand with respect what others are experiencing (which is what we do every day on the phone)
and
2. to promote listening skills amongs the population (and this is a commitment that IFOTES suggests to develop from now on).
We all know what we mean when we say that TES offer a quality relationship based on non-judgemental listening, where we focus on what is most alive in the other person in terms of feelings and essential needs. It is an attitude, deciding to be completely available for someone, putting aside our personal preoccupations and thoughts, being there, ready to offer our full attention. It is what we call empathy.
Empathy is first based on presence; we are simply present for the other person and alive to what he is experiencing.
In our 50 years of experience, we have learned that developing our listening skills and learning how to manage our emotions contributes to develop our self-awareness, our self-esteem and our coping skills. This has a direct impact on mental health and it refers to what we now call “Emotional health.”
This is where I would like to share briefly with you new possible developments for our TES services in the future.
I will talk about 3 groups of people:
1. The first is the group of people at very high risk, people who could commit suicide in the next minutes or hours;
2. The second group are the people who are at risk, without being in an emergency situation; .
3. The third group are the people who are not concerned with suicide or other emergency situation, yet with whom we want to work on strengthening their emotional health.
1. For the first group people at very high risk: it is essential that they have immediate access to a person to talk to, 24 hours a day. The closer we are to a person, the more difficult it becomes to listen with empathy. This is why confidential 24-hour emotional hotlines are so important. There are still many countries that do not have such listening centres or do not provide the telephone service 24 hours a day. Opening or improving listening centres in such countries would definitely contribute to suicide prevention.
2. For the second group people who are at risk, but do not seem to be in an emergency situation: this is a huge group and it is obvious today that the medical environment alone cannot meet their needs. Every day in the experience of TES we see that providing emotional support through active listening and empathy can be learned by people with many different backgrounds. Getting such training through to people such as social workers, teachers, parents, doctors, employers, would contribute to suicide prevention, mental and emotional health and would respond to needs that we often hear expressed.
3. For the third group people who are not directly concerned with an immediate risk: here we suggest focusing on children and schools. This group could play an active role in tomorrow’s suicide-prevention and emotional well-being. Implementing emotional health training in schools would contribute to improving mental and emotional health. It could also be a powerful strategy to decrease violence. It seems that now is the right time to introduce social coping skills to the official school curriculum: this would help tomorrow’s children to manage conflicts and personal frustrations, situations which we all face at one time or another.
If you remember just one of the points I have been talking about, I would like it to be this:
Emotional Support Telephone Hotlines, such as the members of IFOTES or our partners Life Line and the Samaritans, have been training volunteers with very different backgrounds for 50 years. Our experience testifies that learning communication skills such as listening, giving and receiving empathy, is life-serving, it improves our coping skills and our emotional well-being.
This message has been underlined by IFOTES’ president at the conference organized by the WHO on the occasion of the World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10th.
IFOTES is convinced that promoting this awareness around the world and offering training in communication and coping skills will contribute to suicide-prevention and improve mental and emotional health.
Thank you for your attention.
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Koolitus
