Millstein, Dana Lorraine. Predictors of caller feedback evaluations following crisis and suicide hotline calls. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3XS5VK8
DescriptionThis study investigates the relationship of caller follow-up evaluations to standardized measures of symptom reduction, caller characteristics, and interventions made during calls. Within a national multi-site evaluation of hotline centers, a sample of 710 adult crisis callers and 349 adult suicide callers completed a 21-item quantitative satisfaction measure through a structured phone interview. How callers evaluated their hotline experience two weeks after their call related significantly to standardized measures of their psychological state during and after the calls. The strongest relationships were found between callers’ answers to a one-item self-evaluation of Overall Improvement and positive changes in psychological states between the beginning of the call and the two-week follow-up, and between the end of the call and the two week follow-up. For crisis callers, their two-week follow-up single-item evaluations of Overall Improvement related the most to improvements in their mood from the beginning of the call to the two-week follow-up, as measured by a modified version of McNair, Lorr, and Droppleman’s (1992) shortened POMS. Secondly, their follow-up evaluation of Overall Improvement related inversely to their current state of Hopelessness, as measured by quantitative responses to two questions regarding “hope for improvement” and “ability to go on” at the time of follow-up. For suicide callers, their single-item follow-up evaluation of Overall Improvement related the most to degree of reduction in their Hopelessness from the end of the call to the two-week follow-up. Secondly, it also related to the degree of reduction in Psychological Pain (Shneidman, 1993) from the beginning of their call to the two-week follow-up. Smaller but also significant relationships were found between predictors and follow-up evaluations of factor-analyzed categories of Improved Problem-Solving and Emotion Regulation. Thus, hotline client follow-up evaluations of Improvement showed some validity, in that they had relationships with pre- and post-psychological measures. The meaning and usefulness of follow-up caller feedback as an outcome measure are discussed.