Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Telephone Counselling Service

Despite the recent proliferation of telephone counselling services, there have been few rigorous studies of their effectiveness. Effectiveness has been assessed in terms of possible changes in suicide rate, caller compliance with counsellor recommendations, counsellor performance, and caller satisfaction, though none of these indices have been entirely satisfactory (Auerbach and Kilmann, 1977; France, 1975; Greer and Anderson, 1979). We have compared counsellors' and callers' perceptions by recontacting callers shortly after their initial call for help.