Heartline volunteers offer sympathetic ear
Heartline volunteers offer sympathetic ear

By Aaron Crespo Comments 0
Published: September 14, 2008

Ayne Huelsman began her working life answering phones at a runaway shelter, talking primarily to teens upset with their parents. Lately, she has found herself on the phones again.

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Ayne Huelsman has been a volunteer at a 24 hour crisis call center for about 2 months. By Jaconna Aguirre, THE OKLAHOMAN

Huelsman is a volunteer at Heartline, a United Way partner agency that runs 2-1-1 in Oklahoma. The 2-1-1 hotline is a nonemergency line that serves nine counties.

The roughly 30 volunteers and staff members handle calls ranging from abuse complaints to rent and utility assistance to suicide threats.

Even with her experience, Huelsman could not answer any calls until she went through the same training everyone in the center gets.

"Whether you're call staff or whether you're office staff or whatever, we all have to go through the same training,” said Lynn Whipple, Heartline call specialist coordinator.

The hot-line training, which lasts 13 weeks and is held twice a year, teaches everything from using the computer referral database to teaching active listening. The listening techniques are important because the call specialists have no visual cues to work from when on the telephone.

"One of the things I learned is that sometimes you just need to shut up and let them talk,” Huelsman said, adding that the training has helped her both in and out of the center.

While Huelsman has experience as a social worker, many of the volunteers and staff members came to Heartline in other ways.

"A lot come from churches. We get a lot from schools like colleges because some of them are just into psychology. They get credit to do our training. Some of them do internships here. A lot of people we get are just interested in helping,” said Sherry Crosthwait, a program director.

‘Someone to listen'

The volunteers help answer more than 7,000 calls a month. About 300 are suicide calls from two national suicide hot lines. But often people call the hot lines because they just want to talk.

"They want someone to listen. They just want someone compassionate to talk to,” said staff member Elvee O'Kelley, who started out as a volunteer.

Huelsman said she hasn't had to take any suicide calls, but has heard other volunteers and staff members handle suicidal callers. In the most serious situations, the center can call for an intervention, and police will to go to the caller's house. In July, 19 calls ended with interventions.

Even financial assistance calls, which make up about 30 percent of the calls, can become difficult for the volunteers and staff.

"There are two different kinds of hard calls, the one where you know you can't really help much and where you're hoping you really have but you can't see the person and tell for sure,” Huelsman said.

Part of the training is to prepare them for the emotional strain that comes with working at the hot line.

The call center is considering adding the gambling addiction hot line. That line is outsourced to Louisiana and monitored by the Oklahoma Association for Problem and Compulsive Gambling.

"It seems like a good fit for what we already do,” said 2-1-1 Director Steve Almon. "There's a high incidence of suicide among gamblers and our call specialists are trained to respond to individuals contemplating suicide.”