"He had his finger on the trigger": the testimony of employee counseling services

The woman suffered a personal tragedy, but not broken, and only became stronger, and now helps others. In our material you will find an interview with an employee of the counseling center. It is — a poignant story from the horse's mouth. Without templates, without masks, only the truth, such as it is. But we have good news — there is always hope!

Karen Crouch paid work in the counseling center for 8 years. Such activities pushed her own problem, because a woman knows what a suicide.

In 15 years the boy was diagnosed with brain cancer. Serious illness, both physically and mentally. He went through all stages of treatment. At 21, he has reached his limit. The cancer came back, the symptoms had intensified as a result of constant intake of alcohol. So he coped with the pain.

Karen herself was fighting cancer. At a time when her family was in distress and she has just passed another course of treatment.

To cope with the problem helped her center in Memphis in 2007. Then she decided to help other people who are on the verge of suicide.

Directly the "Crisis centre" is a cramped little room with four phones. 100 employees work in shifts.

Operators answer calls from Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi. The number of those who need assistance is growing. Center staff are also connected to several hot lines that operate throughout the country. They transferred those cases when the police accurately captures the risk of suicide.

In 2017, the year the number of calls amounted to 21 thousand. Each one is a story that is full of tragedies and hardships. Operators work for a couple of hours, some of them are volunteers. But there are people who after the first five calls is that?

The following is the translation of a fragment of an interview designed to draw attention to the problem of suicide in the world.

Why you need a center in Memphis?

What is often telling callers?

What do you do first?

What you say to beginners?

If callers need a professional?

How did your family to this job?

At first I worked 10 shifts per month. Basically it was a weekend. The daughter kept to himself and was mad at me.

"How can you talk about suicide after the fact? Aren't you hurt?!" — she said.

Over time, she realized that it was also a way to cope with the problem. My way.

You can tell about a situation when you were able to stop a person from suicide?

At the end of the call I heard his laugh. This is a good sign. I don't really hope to completely pushed him away from the abyss, but I tried to go with him all the stages of post-traumatic syndrome.