New COVID-19 challenges and response strategies adopted by a national suicide prevention hotline: A qualitative study

Abstract

Crisis helplines provide important support for vulnerable individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may also impact the helplines. We explored the challenges that the pandemic brought to Taiwan’s national suicide prevention hotline and the hotline’s responses. We interviewed 14 hotline workers and conducted data analysis using the framework method. The pandemic posed two new challenges to the hotline: potential service interruption and the adjustment of perceived role among hotline workers. The hotline’s well-formulated response plan helped it sustain its services during the pandemic, although the workers also experienced stress and frustration resulted from role ambiguity. Our data highlighted the hotline workers’ need for accurate COVID-19 information, relevant training, and timely support.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Taipei Lifeline and the Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan, for their support. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science and Technology Council (Taiwan) and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Taiwan). The authors thank Ms Iris Yu for proofreading the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant awarded to WYH by the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan [grant number MOST 109-2420-H-004-022). SSC and ITH are supported by the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan [grant number MOST 109-2314-B-002-144-MY3]. This study was partially supported by the Population Health and Welfare Research Center from the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan (grant number NTU-112L9004).