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Today at work I spoke with a lady who was looking for mental health providers and wanted the name of hospital to go to, she felt like she needed inpatient care. And I was having the hardest time finding her a provider. She sounded SO sad and so despondent. We were told in training if we ever got a suicide caller {PLEASE, if you ever feel suicidal do NOT call your health insurance, I am here to tell you the poor shumuck who answers the phone is NOT a mental health professional, nor do we play them on TV, call a hotline or a doctor's office, PLEASE} to NEVER put them on hold but to flag down a supervisor to take a call. My caller wasn't suicidal but she was feeling like she needed inpatient care, to me that's a cry for help--- HELLO, and do you think I could find a supervisor? Ummmmm-NO. I could have shot a canon through that place and not hit a supervisor. I found some names of professionals for my caller to get a hold of. But, I hung up the phone feeling shaky. I felt like I didn't help her AT ALL. I was very emphatic and as helpful as I could be and I pray she knew that. And she was calling me from a parking lot, in her car, wanting me to tell her who to go and see. It was awful, horrible, and just terrible. Three hours later I FINALLY found my supervisor and she was about as comforting as porcupine holding a thumbtack. *sigh* I DO know what to do next time and that makes me feel a tiny bit better. This was seriously the worst call I have taken in my 6 months at this job. I don't think I will EVER forget it. And not in a good way.
When I was driving home, on the way to my kid's parent teacher conferences as I was trying to keep it together, I was wondering why this call bothered me so much? Is it because I have felt that depressed before? Is it because I have known lots of people, some of my very close friends even, who have felt that bad before? Or is simply because I am a helper and a fixer? I love the strokes I get from callers who tell me how helpful I was or how they wished they could call back and get ME personally again. I really love to hear that. I like to feel like I am excelling at my job. I did NOT feel like I was call center operator extrodiniar today. And frankly, that sucks. BIG TIME. *sigh*
I know a few things for sure, I do NOT ever want to work on a crisis line,my supervisor did say to expect more of these types of calls because tis' the time of year for major depression--at least I know what to do for next time!, well if I get many more calls like the one I did today I am going to need mental health for myself, that's for sure. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to both of the boys' parent teacher meetings today. Gawd, I hate those parent things. They are both doing okay. They both visit too much in class and need to slow down on their homework and do a neater job. I was like, yeah, tell me something I don't know and then tell me what I can do about it. I got blank stares back from both teachers. Thanks for nothing, teach. However, both teachers did tell me that both the boys are VERY polite and well behaved and that makes me extremely happy. Especially Connor because at home he's a lot of things but polite and well behaved would not be two of them! At least he KNOWS how to behave when it counts.
I don't know how or why, but Connor has figured out that s-h-i-t spells a naughty word. I don't even say THAT word. I may say damn or son-of-a-bitch, but that's it. Connor finds the whole concept quite hilarious and trys to play around with the whole idea. He has also figured out that you flip somebody off with your middle finger {and I swear to you I haven't flipped anybody off since high school, so he didn't learn it from me...maybe from my MOM or GRANDMA?!?!?!?!} and has been playing around with that too. *sigh* At least his Kindergarten teacher didn't need to mention THAT to me! I should be thankful I am suppose.
Alright, any advice, comments, or simple commands to suck it up will be appreciated. Okay, so I probably won't appreciate a suck-it-up comment, but I will appreciate that you DID comment none the less. :)
9 comments:
Sorry you had a shitty day! Oops! I said it! That happens to be my favorite cuss word, although I haven't said it in front of the impressionable crowd. My Mom however said G. D. in front of my oldest twice! He was shocked and offended. :)
Love your new layout, but it's so tiny I can't read it. I'll have to have my hubs help me figure out how to make the font bigger.
(I copied and pasted it into Word so I could read it.) I'm a loser.
I used to volunteer at the jails. I worked with women in conflict with the law...
In my country 75 percent of women in jail were there because of poverty. And 80 per cent of them were sexualy abused before they turned twelve. It broke my heart...
I used to wonder what I really had to offer...
But soon learned that all they wanted was for someone to listen... As I certainly was not going to get them out of their situation... But I could hear them...
You are making a difference Jodi...
Everyone deserves to be heard... You can not change their path... but at least you can keep them company along the way...
The call handling must be tough, especially when you're not expecting to handle those types of calls. It's good that you do get a lot of positive feedback though!
With kids, its hard for them to ignore the talk that goes on in the playground. Our son has come home with some "pearlers" that I know we don't generally say in his company!
I don't think I'd be good at providing impromtu counseling to someone either and would probably totally freak out in that type of situation. My sense is that you are a sensitive soul and probably were just worried that you couldn't help the caller as much as you would have liked, but it sounds like you did the best you could under the cicumstances and that's all anyone can do.
p.s. I like the new design!
Shhh! Jodi, I thought those calls were confidential. No, it wasn't me or was it?
Lordy, you have got to come over. It's the holidays and I detest the holidays, so I need a non-holiday person to hang out with-- so I don't end up calling you next week and you can't find a supervisor.
Honestly, Jodi you are probably a better person to talk to than any old supervisor. She was probably better off.
Glad the parent-teacher conference went well. I have mine today, and I have no sitter. Ben is stuck at work and won't be home for Thanksgiving. And so, I'm taking the horde of kids to the conference and the old teacher can deal with it.
Hey! Where's your template? Hmmm.
Anyway, what is it that you know what to do next time you get a call like that? You did not say.
And my son is coming home with bad things learned from kids at school too. You can't stop that. Other kids learn these things and spread the news to our sweet innocent boys! My son was talking about the s-e-x word one day and another day he was trying to get me to say "sh" so he could say "it"!
Oh wait! There is your template. for some reason it didn't show up when I first viewed your site. weird.
Oh, how sad... but, I would think, just knowing someone cared enough to try and help her should get her to the next step... maybe she can just present herself at the door of an ER...
Glad the boys are doing well, and don't worry about "shit"... Eva says, "fuck" and I know exactly where she learned it - me.
Funny though, I won't say, "Oh My God", but I will drop the f-bomb in front of my kids.
There goes my mother of the year award!
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