A Digital World Reaching Teens At Risk

CHI’s International Consultation – London, 2014

ERAN: Brief Overview

• Free offering emotional support via the telephone and the internet, 24 hours a day.

• Support is provided by a cadre of 1,100 carefully selected volunteers, who underwent intensive training in the provision of initial responses to emotional distress*

• Established in 1971. Internet service since 2002.

ERAN: Brief Overview

• Volunteers work out of 12 centers around the country, under the guidance and supervision of mental health professionals

• Approximately 165,000 calls are answered on an annual basis.

(Tel & Web)

Online service for Children and Youth

Using the Internet to seek emotional assistance has greatly expanded in the last two decades with a variety of online applications, even more so with the use of Smart Phones:oPersonal chats o ForumsoE-mail oWebsites providing information

Necessary conditions for effective online emotional support

o Anonymity during the interaction gives applicants a sense of emotional protection

o Written communication promotes the presence of personal exposure

o Anonymity of the volunteers enables the youth to conceive his/her own mental image of the counselor

o Highly accessible, breaks barriers of distance and time – crucial times of crisis, when the need for help is immediate.

o Extreme lonelinesso Peer and community alienationo Relationship disappointmento Parental conflicto Low self esteemo Suicidal thoughts

Types of Emotional Distress

Calls to ERAN from Adolescents

A 15 yr old homosexual boy is unable to talk to the people close to him.

A 16 yr old boy, whose friend was killed in a terror attack, is unable to come to terms with his loss.

A 15 yr old girl, traumatized by air-raid sirens which go off when she is home alone, is unable to fall asleep and suffers from nightmares .

Calls to ERAN from Adolescents

A 14 yr old girl made friends with a boy via the internet and does not know whether to meet him. She is worried about her parents’ reaction.

A Junior High School pupil has no friends and feels lonely and isolated.

A 12th grade pupil from a religious family is struggling with issues of faith and belief in God.

Calls to ERAN from Adolescents

An 8th grader moved with his family after the Fire Disaster on the Carmel. (2011)He is lonely and misses his friends.

A 17 yr old girl, living with a violent brother, and a mother who defends and protects him, finds it hard to concentrate at school.

A young girl from a family of 10 children faces a difficult dilemma: how to explain to her father that she is a lesbian while he constantly urges her to get married.

Strategy of Emotional Assistance

Empathy: Reflecting the emotional situation of the caller

Caller: “I just cannot see a reason to continue. I am suffering and it’s worse than physical pain.”

Volunteer: “I can hear your pain, how difficult it is for you to continue and your need to make a decision.”

Caller: “I don’t think that you understand the pain I am going through.”

Volunteer: “I don’t presume to understand your pain. Your pain is very real.”

Using Metaphors

Caller

“I cry all day and each day I feel worse. I have thought about suicide so many times………”

Volunteer“You do not need to carry this burden all by yourself”“Your pain is pouring out of you and screaming from each word….each letter”.

Identification

Caller:“It’s so hard to get up in the morning when all I can see is darkness and the tears are pouring down my face…..and to know that there is nowhere to run and there is no strength…..alone, lonely, from the inside…..”

Volunteer: “I understand what you are saying. I hear how alone and lonely you feel. I hear that you feel you have no strength but it takes much strength to seek help and share your feelings like you are doing now. ”

Cognitive Change

V: “From reading your chat I get a different picture: you served a full military service, something that many people are not successful at, you are working hard for nearly a year and making a success at your job… you left your previous job and found another more suitable job, you have an amazing ability to express yourself in writing and you sound like a very interesting guy…..and highly intelligent…”

C: “Listen, I told you already that I am a failure….it’s is my fate and I have made peace with it but I don’t want to suffer anymore.”

C: “amazing ability to express myself???????? Me??????? LOL very funny. “

Thank You

Maybe the human existence is just a struggle for a sympathetic

ear. - Vagdalin Patan

CHI’s International Consultation – London, 2014