October 14, 2004
Students call, students listen: It’s U-CALL, and it’s new
UW students who simply need to talk with someone have a new listening service, staffed by volunteers trained at Hall Health Center.
U-CALL began Sept. 29 and is staffed evening and weekends, when professional services at Hall Health and the Counseling Center are unavailable. The service was student-inspired and is student-staffed, with professional backup.
The roots of U-CALL go back to 2002, when UW student Max Olson visited Great Britain and found that virtually every college and university had an after-hours listening service for their students. Olson, as a Mary Gates Scholar, began efforts to create a service like this on the UW campus. He graduated in 2003, but he had planted a seed, and his work was carried on by a cadre of students and Mark Shaw, director of health education at Hall Health.
“We ended up taking a different approach than the services in Great Britain,” Shaw says. “It also took us some time to deal with issues of funding and liability.” The service is a pilot project, jointly sponsored by Hall Health and the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.
In some ways, it’s almost easier to describe what U-CALL isn’t than what it is. It isn’t a crisis line. It isn’t intended as therapy. It’s not a place to call for advice.
Shaw describes the service as “non-directive, non-advisory and non-judgmental. We train students to ask the callers open-ended questions, and in most cases the subtle message that callers receive will be ‘the answer lies within you.'” In some cases, Shaw adds, the student volunteers will recognize that the problem is more serious and will provide the caller with information about other resources, both on and off campus. In rare instances, the caller will be referred onto the King County Crisis Line.
Each student volunteer has received four full days of training. “The hardest part of that was to train them just to listen and not to give advice,” Shaw says. “It was challenging for them.”
Services such as U-CALL are pretty rare in the United States, Shaw says, although many universities have full crisis lines staffed by graduate students in psychology and faculty members. “Many people underestimate the severity of the issues they are facing and wait to call a crisis line until events are at a near-calamity. What we’re offering is a lower-key option to help students head off problems before they become severe. We see it as kind of a release valve.”
Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, has been offering a similar service since 1988. Their experience, and that of similar services, suggests that most calls are about one of three topics: relationships (either roommates or a significant other), academic issues, or a mental or emotional issue (such as being lonely or homesick).
Each of the 17 volunteers will work three shifts a month, a shift being from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. weekdays, or all day on weekends.
About half the students are majoring in health and social sciences, with the next biggest group being communication majors. The diverse group is nearly one-third male, which is unusual for lines such as this, Shaw says. “We hope this encourages guys to call, since they are normally more reluctant than women to reach out for help.”
All calls are confidential, and all those who receive calls may not give out their real names. Hall Health Center’s mental health professionals and the staff of the Counseling Center are always available as backup to the students.
“We know that some people who come to the UW have lost the option of having a frank conversation with a good friend, who may now be somewhere else,” Shaw says. “Or they may feel like talking with parents about some issues just isn’t an option. So we’re helping to build bridges for them with students who are trained as good listeners.”
The number for U-CALL is 206-543-CALL (2255).
