Triage is the skill to discern which caller is more at risk and to make a decision on which caller you will talk with in the moment. In general, if everyone is on the phone with a caller, and the phone rings, someone needs to put their caller on hold, assess the new caller how they are doing, and decide which caller to stick with. Triaging is an important skill that all crisis line counselors must have to be effective. A goal we have is to pick up the phone before three rings.
Triaging can feel disruptive to the rapport you have worked so hard to establish with your caller. It can be annoying and frustrating to have to put a caller on hold multiple times.
One major challenge of triaging is our internal socialization that interrupting someone is rude. If this is true, talk about it with your trainer or shift supervisor. It is natural to feel this way.
Triaging is a big part of teamwork. People should share the responsibility of triaging so no one counselor is stuck interrupting their call multiple times. Work with your shift supervisor to set up a rotation. Sometimes, it is not a good idea to put your caller on hold. Let people know that you are on a high risk call and that you don’t feel comfortable putting your caller on hold.
Click on this link to hear Binh and Joyce talk about triaging:
http://www.binhau.com/CSS/Triage_with_Binh_and_Joyce.mp3
Here is a sample of Joyce modeling putting someone on hold:
http://www.binhau.com/CSS/Sample_Triage_with_the_caller.mp3
Check in with your shift supervisor if you would like more practice with triaging
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