An online masterclass on Dealing with Crisis Calls was held on Sept 16, 2022 for the staff of MOHAN Foundation as well as members of the Network and Alliance of Transplant Coordinators. The trainer for the day was Ms Vimarsha Jain, a clinical psychologist with Explore Counseling. The Master Class was supported by SBI Foundation.
Dr Hemal Kanvinde welcomed the speaker Ms Vimarsha Jain, Dr Vasuki Mathivanan, Managing Partner of Explore Counseling and the organizer and all the counselors and transplant coordinators who registered for the training. She explained the changes in the calls to the organ donation and transplant helpline during and post COVID pandemic.
Ms Vimarsha started the two hour training in a slow and steady manner. She explained the term crisis from various viewpoints and perceptions of people. A crisis could be a single event or a series of events. Upon receiving a call, the tone, timber of the voice can give an indication of the mental status of the caller. As a phone counselor, it is important to control the panic, steady the mind of the caller, ensure safety of the caller and explain the limitations of the helpline and confidentiality of the caller. She also explained that a counselor cannot have a secondary victimization of the caller, the main goal is to reduce the intensity of the negative feelings of the caller and the second goal is understand the problem to help in solving the main issue for the crisis call.
She also said that it ok to ask the caller queries regarding hurting yourself, social thoughts, their worst feelings and then ask them about coping with these situations earlier. Always take permission to give their contact to others, to share her organization numbers with them. The counselors to have a action map for crisis calls. At the end try to summarize the entire call in order to ground the caller.
She reiterated the suicide is no longer a criminal offense but a medical condition, though the counselor can call ambulance service, police helplines, mental health helplines. She gave some tips to ground the caller if he/she is highly excited state. She also gave some personal care tips for counselors.
The discussion points were the inability to help the caller, feeling of helplessness, sometimes that knowing that trade is illegal, people get influenced by films and call, understanding the caller’s mind takes a few minutes and not having enough resources to help such crisis callers.
In the end Dr Hemal thanked Ms Vimarsha Jain and Dr Vasuki Mathivanan for their efforts and time in conducting a successful masterclass.
33 members attended the training.
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