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“I Called When I Was at My Lowest”: Australian Men’s Experiences of Crisis Helplines

Background: Helplines are an accessible form of support for people struggling with difficulties in their lives and are key services in suicide prevention and intervention. Men’s experiences of telephone helplines are not well understood, despite high male suicide rates. Methods: We conducted an onli...

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Autores principales: Trail, Katherine, Wilson, Michael J., Rice, Simon M., Hunt, Tara, Pirkis, Jane, Seidler, Zac E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9332851/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35897513
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159143
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author Trail, Katherine
Wilson, Michael J.
Rice, Simon M.
Hunt, Tara
Pirkis, Jane
Seidler, Zac E.
author_facet Trail, Katherine
Wilson, Michael J.
Rice, Simon M.
Hunt, Tara
Pirkis, Jane
Seidler, Zac E.
author_sort Trail, Katherine
collection PubMed
description Background: Helplines are an accessible form of support for people struggling with difficulties in their lives and are key services in suicide prevention and intervention. Men’s experiences of telephone helplines are not well understood, despite high male suicide rates. Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey with N = 684 Australian men (aged 17–83 years, M = 50.13) using open- and closed-ended questions about their experiences of helplines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive statistics were analysed to investigate differences between men using and not using helplines. Qualitative responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Within the sample, 100 men (14.6%) had used a helpline service. Men using helplines were more likely to be unemployed and in younger age brackets than those not using helplines. They were also more likely to report experiencing stressors related to COVID-19, including financial stress and job loss, perceived impact on mental health and relationship breakdown. Qualitative analysis indicated varied experiences of helplines, with men shedding light on how their interaction with a counsellor, the structure of services and their expectations of the service impacted their experience. Conclusions: Further in-depth qualitative enquiry in this space is required, with the objective of understanding how helpline services may seek to better engage with male callers.
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spelling pubmed-93328512022-07-29 “I Called When I Was at My Lowest”: Australian Men’s Experiences of Crisis Helplines Trail, Katherine Wilson, Michael J. Rice, Simon M. Hunt, Tara Pirkis, Jane Seidler, Zac E. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Helplines are an accessible form of support for people struggling with difficulties in their lives and are key services in suicide prevention and intervention. Men’s experiences of telephone helplines are not well understood, despite high male suicide rates. Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey with N = 684 Australian men (aged 17–83 years, M = 50.13) using open- and closed-ended questions about their experiences of helplines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive statistics were analysed to investigate differences between men using and not using helplines. Qualitative responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Within the sample, 100 men (14.6%) had used a helpline service. Men using helplines were more likely to be unemployed and in younger age brackets than those not using helplines. They were also more likely to report experiencing stressors related to COVID-19, including financial stress and job loss, perceived impact on mental health and relationship breakdown. Qualitative analysis indicated varied experiences of helplines, with men shedding light on how their interaction with a counsellor, the structure of services and their expectations of the service impacted their experience. Conclusions: Further in-depth qualitative enquiry in this space is required, with the objective of understanding how helpline services may seek to better engage with male callers. MDPI 2022-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9332851/ /pubmed/35897513 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159143 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Trail, Katherine
Wilson, Michael J.
Rice, Simon M.
Hunt, Tara
Pirkis, Jane
Seidler, Zac E.
“I Called When I Was at My Lowest”: Australian Men’s Experiences of Crisis Helplines
title “I Called When I Was at My Lowest”: Australian Men’s Experiences of Crisis Helplines
title_full “I Called When I Was at My Lowest”: Australian Men’s Experiences of Crisis Helplines
title_fullStr “I Called When I Was at My Lowest”: Australian Men’s Experiences of Crisis Helplines
title_full_unstemmed “I Called When I Was at My Lowest”: Australian Men’s Experiences of Crisis Helplines
title_short “I Called When I Was at My Lowest”: Australian Men’s Experiences of Crisis Helplines
title_sort “i called when i was at my lowest”: australian men’s experiences of crisis helplines
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9332851/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35897513
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159143
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