06/Dec/2007
Crisis Intervention Center:
Sweetness at the Crisis Center
By Robert Boland
EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Boland is a volunteer for the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center who submitted the following article in the hope of encouraging others who might become volunteer crisis counselors by calling 924-1431. Since this is such a personal story, we did not want to change a word of it.
This is about what the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center does for our community and what our community does for it. You and I and all of us, neighbors all, are part of that community. I am a volunteer crisis counselor at BRCIC, and this is also about my experience. There is sweetness at BRCIC, as you will see.
Most folk know us as The Phone, but we do much more than operate a crisis line. We got started in 1970 with just one telephone located at the infirmary on the LSU campus. That phone was established there when six LSU students killed themselves in separate incidents in one semester. The need for people to be able to talk through issues overwhelming them was made obvious by these tragic deaths. Since that time we have grown significantly and now receive about 15,000 calls each year to our crisis line. More about that later.
Individuals who lose a loved one to suicide suffer a range of confusing and painful emotions. The healing for these suicide survivors is a lifetime process and the earlier the healing starts, the more effective it can be. When a suicide occurs in our parish, the coroner is called and, in turn, the coroner calls BRCIC for the activation of our LOSS team. Our LOSS team is composed of men and women who, themselves, have lost a loved one to suicide. They go to the location of the family who has suffered the loss. There is great comfort for a person who has just lost a loved one to suicide to be talked to and held by one who has been in their shoes and has suffered the same pain and confusion as they. The healing starts there. The LOSS team was called out nineteen times last year.
These suicide survivors can also come to our support group. The group meets weekly at our headquarters and we usually have about twenty-five or so attendees each week. The healing continues as emotions and feelings are identified and explored using a variety of techniques under the guidance of at least one mental health professional.
Children, also, can suffer greatly both when a suicide occurs in their family and when a loved one is lost through other causes, natural and otherwise. We have a professionally led group for them that helps these children acknowledge their feelings and emotions, and to begin or continue the process of dealing with them. The group and its activities help them heal. The youngest age for this group is five years and the oldest is twelve years. We find this is the age range which can most benefit from the activities of the group. The children’s group meets weekly and about fifteen children attend each week. At the same time the children meet, the parents of the children meet with one of our professionals who help them address their own emotions and those of their children. Each summer we host “campers” from the children’s group for a day of outdoor activities directed at growth and healing. We call it Camp Chrysalis.
BRCIC also maintains a large database of public and private providers of human services. These services include the basics of food, shelter, and clothing, mental health services, physical health services, drug treatment services, and a myriad of other services addressing the human condition. One need only dial 211 to be connected to us. Each year we receive about 24,000 calls from individuals who need help in finding the resources they need, and we help them find these resources.
We define a crisis as a failure in coping skills. All of us have known this failure. As a result of the stress and strain of our busy lives we sometimes cause harm to ourselves or to others by our words or our acts. Our coping skills can be said to have failed. It is when these coping skills repeatedly fail, or when they are in failure, or when we are overwhelmed by the problems in our lives, or when we are confused and don’t know where to turn to escape the pain of our lives, that we need help. We get 15,000 calls each year from our community who are suffering in this way. We may have received a call from you, or your family member, or from the person in front of you in the check out line. The phone number is 924-3900.
I receive some of these calls, and I have been receiving them for about twelve hours each month for the last three years. When I volunteered for this work three years ago, I knew as much as you probably know about how to talk with someone in crisis. Absolutely zero. The training, however, is superb. It is sixty hours of training that is recognized nationally for its excellence. After that and a bit of supervision from a staff member, I was “on the lines” receiving calls from people in crisis. It is the most rewarding work I have done in my life. There is no sweeter feeling than opening a conversation with a caller, working through their issues with them, and ending the call with a much more settled caller.
At The Phone, there is at least one crisis counselor on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is a very nice feeling to be off doing something and to know that the organization you are part of has someone on duty talking to members of our community—talking to our neighbors--who are suffering crisis. It is nice to be part of an organization that is devoted to building a healthier community one-on-one. Come join me.
We need volunteers for The Phone. Volunteers are our life blood. Our volunteers are people of all ages and backgrounds; they are just like you. They have gone through the training, they are on the lines, and they are right now delivering the service and reaping the rewards I mentioned above. Come join us. The sweetness of service “on the lines” is waiting for you. Call our business office at 924-1431 and tell Dawn or whoever answers that you would like to volunteer as a crisis counselor.
Sweetness at the Crisis Center
EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Boland is a volunteer for the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center who submitted the following article in the hope of encouraging others who might become volunteer crisis counselors by calling 924-1431. Since this is such a personal story, we did not want to change a word of it.
This is about what the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center does for our community and what our community does for it. You and I and all of us, neighbors all, are part of that community. I am a volunteer crisis counselor at BRCIC, and this is also about my experience. There is sweetness at BRCIC, as you will see.
Most folk know us as The Phone, but we do much more than operate a crisis line. We got started in 1970 with just one telephone located at the infirmary on the LSU campus. That phone was established there when six LSU students killed themselves in separate incidents in one semester. The need for people to be able to talk through issues overwhelming them was made obvious by these tragic deaths. Since that time we have grown significantly and now receive about 15,000 calls each year to our crisis line. More about that later.
Individuals who lose a loved one to suicide suffer a range of confusing and painful emotions. The healing for these suicide survivors is a lifetime process and the earlier the healing starts, the more effective it can be. When a suicide occurs in our parish, the coroner is called and, in turn, the coroner calls BRCIC for the activation of our LOSS team. Our LOSS team is composed of men and women who, themselves, have lost a loved one to suicide. They go to the location of the family who has suffered the loss. There is great comfort for a person who has just lost a loved one to suicide to be talked to and held by one who has been in their shoes and has suffered the same pain and confusion as they. The healing starts there. The LOSS team was called out nineteen times last year.
These suicide survivors can also come to our support group. The group meets weekly at our headquarters and we usually have about twenty-five or so attendees each week. The healing continues as emotions and feelings are identified and explored using a variety of techniques under the guidance of at least one mental health professional.
Children, also, can suffer greatly both when a suicide occurs in their family and when a loved one is lost through other causes, natural and otherwise. We have a professionally led group for them that helps these children acknowledge their feelings and emotions, and to begin or continue the process of dealing with them. The group and its activities help them heal. The youngest age for this group is five years and the oldest is twelve years. We find this is the age range which can most benefit from the activities of the group. The children’s group meets weekly and about fifteen children attend each week. At the same time the children meet, the parents of the children meet with one of our professionals who help them address their own emotions and those of their children. Each summer we host “campers” from the children’s group for a day of outdoor activities directed at growth and healing. We call it Camp Chrysalis.
BRCIC also maintains a large database of public and private providers of human services. These services include the basics of food, shelter, and clothing, mental health services, physical health services, drug treatment services, and a myriad of other services addressing the human condition. One need only dial 211 to be connected to us. Each year we receive about 24,000 calls from individuals who need help in finding the resources they need, and we help them find these resources.
We define a crisis as a failure in coping skills. All of us have known this failure. As a result of the stress and strain of our busy lives we sometimes cause harm to ourselves or to others by our words or our acts. Our coping skills can be said to have failed. It is when these coping skills repeatedly fail, or when they are in failure, or when we are overwhelmed by the problems in our lives, or when we are confused and don’t know where to turn to escape the pain of our lives, that we need help. We get 15,000 calls each year from our community who are suffering in this way. We may have received a call from you, or your family member, or from the person in front of you in the check out line. The phone number is 924-3900.
I receive some of these calls, and I have been receiving them for about twelve hours each month for the last three years. When I volunteered for this work three years ago, I knew as much as you probably know about how to talk with someone in crisis. Absolutely zero. The training, however, is superb. It is sixty hours of training that is recognized nationally for its excellence. After that and a bit of supervision from a staff member, I was “on the lines” receiving calls from people in crisis. It is the most rewarding work I have done in my life. There is no sweeter feeling than opening a conversation with a caller, working through their issues with them, and ending the call with a much more settled caller.
At The Phone, there is at least one crisis counselor on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is a very nice feeling to be off doing something and to know that the organization you are part of has someone on duty talking to members of our community—talking to our neighbors--who are suffering crisis. It is nice to be part of an organization that is devoted to building a healthier community one-on-one. Come join me.
We need volunteers for The Phone. Volunteers are our life blood. Our volunteers are people of all ages and backgrounds; they are just like you. They have gone through the training, they are on the lines, and they are right now delivering the service and reaping the rewards I mentioned above. Come join us. The sweetness of service “on the lines” is waiting for you. Call our business office at 924-1431 and tell Dawn or whoever answers that you would like to volunteer as a crisis counselor.
