Kids Help Phone counsellors experiencing burnout

Calls to Kids Help Phone seem to have dramatically increased due to the ongoing pandemic. Counsellors employed by the charity counselling service are now experiencing stress and anxiety of their own with no aid from management.

Toronto employment lawyer Chantel Goldsmith at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP joins CHML’s Scott Thompson to discuss the ongoing crisis and what options counsellors might have.

What They Discussed

• What do you do when a counsellor needs counselling? Burnout is a really important and prevalent issue, particularly when having continuous difficult conversations with children. Counsellors aren’t having an opportunity to reach out to their colleagues as they’re working remotely.
• Are counsellors being pressured to help as many clients as possible quickly? Counsellors are being pushed to have fewer long calls by their union and the stress appears to be leading to leaves of absence due to anxiety.
• How do you gauge how much time should be spent with someone in crisis? It depends on the nature of the crisis itself and there doesn’t appear to be a way to determine the duration ahead of time.
• Does management have access to these calls to determine if they’re effective or not? Management is able to listen into the calls to ensure the counsellor is being effective.
• Is this an ongoing issue or has the pandemic increased demand for these calls? Tracking the counsellors time began before the pandemic in 2019.
• What recourse do counsellors have if they’re feeling overworked? Counsellors would have to put pressure on their union to advocate on their behalf. Counsellors could also seek out disability leave if possible.
• Is a shortage of counsellors at the root of this problem? While this could be an issue there does appear to be new counsellors being hired.
• Can you use the same criteria to run a help line as they do a call centre? It appears this is what management is trying to do however this does not necessarily make it an efficient service.
• Will this issue with Kids Help Phone get a lot of attention due to the pandemic? Children’s mental health is becoming more of an issue due to COVID-19 as there is more of a need for mental health aid.