Summary
In 2014 the Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, NKVTS was commissioned to investigate the need of a national hotline for victims of violence in close relationships and sexual abuse. The investigation concluded that there was sound reasoning for the establishment of a national hotline that had a standard single number and was available to individuals who had experienced violence related acts (Saur & Holth, 2015). Based on this finding the Ministry of Justice and Public Security requested NKVTS to investigate further the different aspects in more detail of a national hotline. The questions raised in this report are as follows:
- What purpose should a national hotline have
- What level of skill and expertise should those manning the phones have
- How should the hotline be tailored to suit the different types of service users
- How to spread the information of the national hotline so it is well-known amongst the general population
- To estimate how much traffic or usage the hotline could expect as well as an estimation of general expenses
- How the hotline could be coupled to the national web portal dinutvei.no
- Suggestions of the hotline’s structural organization
Method
The foundation and hence development of this report was based mainly on interviews with employees from relevant assistance-, support and emergency hotlines from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Some employees were interviewed by telephone while others were interviewed face-to-face. All together employees from 19 different agencies, the majority being head of management, were interviewed. In addition to one-to-one interviews, yearly reports, evaluations and available information from the different agencies’ web pages were studied. Through this we gathered information concerning work methodology, number of consultations and intended service users, etc.
Focus group interviews comprising of individuals who have been subjected to violence in close relationships and sexual violence were conducted to obtain these individuals point of view and to ensure service user involvement of the proposed hotline.
Content and aim of the national hotline service
The investigation showed that Nordic Countries have three different help and- assistance hotline functions. This includes; listening and giving support, guiding and informing and lastly providing more comprehensive and extensive guidance and follow-up. This report suggests that the proposed hotline should be an anonymous telephone service which listens, supports, guides and informs. Furthermore it is important to define clear and distinct goals that enable the telephone services to be evaluated to ensure that these goals are met.
In order to provide guidance and up-to-date information a close collaboration with the national web portal dinutvei.no is needed. dinutvei.no has up-to-date information concerning what type of assistance is available to those subjected to violence in close relationships and sexual violence/rape. The report suggests that these two services should be two different organizational entities but that they should be coupled together and collaborate on acquiring the most useful, relevant and current information available.
Service users
The national hotline is an intended service for those subjected to violence in close relationships and sexual violence/rape. Expanding this definition to include all types of violence is not recommended yet at the same time it is recommended not to have a too stringent of a definition of this type of violence either. The hotline should be available to women and men and transgenders. The report discusses the pros and cons of setting the age limit of the service users to 16 years of age. As to which age limit to set, an evaluation and comparison of the report’s findings to the already established National Hotline for Children and Adolescents; a hotline service for those 18 years old and under, will have to be conducted. The report also suggested that the victim’s close relatives and social network be included as service users. Quite often close relatives and social networks play an important role in supporting the victim as well as assisting them in establishing contact with assistance services, and will therefore also benefit from advice and guidance provided by the hotline service. Professionals who are in contact with those subjected to violence in need of advice and guidance are also recommended to be defined as potential service users. In order to accommodate those who speak a minority language, procedures for the use of an interpreter has to be developed and effectively implemented.
Qualifications
It is recommended that the staff be comprised of employees from different interdisciplinary fields with a minimum of a three year bachelor degree within health sciences or social work. They should also preferably have higher education or work related experience in helping victims- of violence and/or sexual abuse. Many who are subjected to violence within close relationships and sexual abuse show a strong resistance to seeking out help, so it is of the utmost importance that when those subjected to this type of violence first seek assistance that those manning the phones have a high level of communicatory skills. Employees should have “hands-on” knowledge as well as research based knowledge of violence in close relationships and sexual abuse and knowledge of the assistance services available.
Communications
It is important that different lines of communication be used to ensure that the hotline is known amongst the general public. In that communications and information is a field of its own, it is recommended to hire an individual with these qualifications. It is also important that employees actively pursue building up networks with different organizations. Organizations within this network can market towards and relay this information to their service users and through this networking reach out to groups who are usually difficult to reach through regular channels.
In order to reach out to as many individuals as possible a chat-function as well as a questions and answers function should be considered as part of the service. Even though a chat function may not initially be part of the service it is still recommended that the service still be labeled as a “hotline”. It is also suggested that words like “crisis” and “alarm” should be avoided when describing the hotline, to ensure that emergency and acute situations are taken care of by the appropriate emergency responders like police- and or medical services.
Organizational structure of the service
The planned hotline should be established and coupled to a service/environment which has clinical experience with violence in close relationships and/or sexual abuse. An integrated model is proposed to ensure that all employees who man the hotline should all be employed by the same organization. The most appropriate organizations to be affiliated with the proposed hotline are the Accidents and Emergency services in Oslo (Sosial og ambulant akutt tjeneste i Oslo) or a crisis shelter. There are both reasons for and against placing the service under public organization in comparison to a non-government organization and visa-versa. Placing the hotline under public domain ensures continuity of management and shows that the Norwegian government takes violence and sexual abuse seriously. The report concludes this to be the best solution.
It is important that certain factors are in place to secure a good working environment to ensure that callers are met in an appropriate and good way. This entails making space for a calm and quiet working environment where concentrated and focused conversations can take place. To build on employees’ expertise it is important that they receive counseling, guidance and further education.
Expenses
This report suggests two different models of structural organization, one where the service is open 24 hours a day all days of the year, the other with limited opening hours. An estimate has been made predicting how much the two different models will cost. The cost of establishing the service has not been estimated and will depend on which of the two alternative organizational models are chosen and which organization/agency the service will be affiliated with.
It is recommended that the service should be evaluated with particular emphasis on user experience with the service.