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Talk Time Differences Between Interregional and Intraregional Calls to a Crisis Helpline: Statistical Analysis.
Robin Turkington1, Courtney Potts1, Maurice Mulvenna1
1School of Computing, Ulster University, Belfast, United Kingdom.
JMIR Mental Health
|September 19, 2024
Summary
Calls to crisis helplines like Samaritans UK were shorter when routed to a local branch versus an out-of-region branch. This finding helps optimize resource management and caller satisfaction in suicide prevention services.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Health Services Research
- Psychiatry
Background:
- National suicide prevention strategies utilize population-based approaches to encourage help-seeking and implement interventions.
- Crisis helplines, such as Samaritans UK, offer a vital resource for individuals in distress, connecting them with trained volunteers.
- Samaritans UK operates nationally across the United Kingdom, with branches in each of its four countries.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate interregional and intraregional variations in crisis helpline call duration.
- To determine the impact of call routing (intraregional vs. interregional) on call duration for landline calls to Samaritans UK.
- To assess if call duration differs when calls are answered within the caller's region compared to a different region.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of call data from Samaritans UK, identifying call origin region via landline prefix and destination branch region.
- Application of Levene's test for homogeneity of variance for calls originating in England and Scotland.
- Utilization of one-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) to evaluate significant differences in call duration between intraregional and interregional calls.
Main Results:
- Significant differences in call duration were found between intraregional and interregional calls (P<.001).
- Callers consistently spent less time on the phone when their calls were routed to a branch within the same region of origin.
- This shorter duration was observed across all tested conditions, including calls originating from England and Scotland.
Conclusions:
- Statistical analysis confirmed significant differences between interregional and intraregional calls.
- Crisis helpline callers utilize shorter call durations when routed to a local branch compared to a branch in a different region.
- Findings suggest potential for improved resource management and enhanced caller satisfaction in crisis helplines through optimized call routing strategies.
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