1. Testing Calls in Australia:
Plague or Purpose?
Prankster or Prank Star?

2. Definitions
Counselling contacts and Non-Counselling contacts
Non-counselling contacts (Support calls):
Positive call:
• Information about counselling process
• Good news, happiness, positive events
• Positive reflection/ sharing successes
• Positive feedback about KHL
Soft call
• Asks for counsellor
• Bored/chat/ joked, but not lonely
• Requests for information (including about KHL)

3. Definitions:
Hard call
• Loud noises-screaming, whistles, etc
• Swearing
• General abuse
• Abuse of a personal/sexual nature
Testing/Prank call
• Playing the fool, making noises, etc
• Silent call (eg caller stays on)
• Hang-up (eg instant silence)

4. How many calls?!
2007 Telephone calls <26 years
282, 268 calls answered by counsellors
40,953 counselling calls
241,318 non-counselling calls (85%)
21,116 Hard calls (9%)
148,002 Testing calls (61%)
70,996 Softcalls (29%)
1,204 Positive calls <1%)

5. But how much time?
Call Type Duration
30
Median (most frequent
25
no. of mins) Counselling
20 calls
Minutes
Mean (average number
15
of mins) Counselling
10 calls
5 Mean (average number
of mins) Non-Counselling
0 calls
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

6. How much??
Average Hard call lasts about 20 seconds
Average Testing call lasts less than 10 seconds
Non-counselling calls account for less than 15% of total time
spent on phones
Testing and Hard calls account for just 2% of time on the
phone

7. So how have calls changed?
All All
Year All Calls All All All All Support Counselling Testing
Attempts Answered Answered Counsellin Calls <26 and and
(Cyphone) Calls Calls <26 g Support Hard
Cyphone) AS400 Calls <26 Calls <26 Calls <26
1999 1,527,892 354,861 331,284 95,109 64,358 159,467 171,817
2000 1,412,091 417,352 413,991 93,176 81,893 175069 238,922
2001 1,280,899 410,336 390,916 86,528 76,967 163,495 227,421
2002 1,053,141 429,982 415,392 77,308 92,933 170,241 245,151
2003 1,110,821 523,825 509,378 78,088 100,463 178,551 330,827
2004 907,569 447,367 430,605 65,274 90,544 155,818 274,787
2005 643,102 332,820 296,951 44,853 61,494 106,311 190,581
2006 573,639 307,813 275,011 44,646 62,659 107,305 167,706
2007 542,081 289,276 282,272 40,953 72,201 113,154 169,118

8. Say what??
Call Type x Year
1,800,000
1,600,000
1,400,000 All Call Attempts
(Cyphone)
1,200,000 All Answered Calls
(Cyphone)
1,000,000
All Answered Calls
<26 AS400
800,000
All Counselling Calls
<26
600,000
All Support Calls
<26
400,000
All Counselling and
200,000 Support Calls <26
All Testing and Hard
0 Calls <26
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year

9. What happens when we increase our response
rate?
Proportional Call Trends
Call response rate
(Cy)
70
60
% of all calls
50
Csllg calls as % of all
answered
40 (AS400)<26
30
Csllg and support calls
20 as % of all answered
10
calls (AS400)<26
Testing and hard
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 calls as % of all
answered calls
(AS400)
Year

10. Who are our Prank Stars- Testing calls?
Age Female Male Total
5 TO 9 2.0% 1.4% 3.3%
10 TO 14 32.8% 32.2% 65.0%
15 TO 18 12.9% 16.9% 29.8%
19 TO 25 0.8% 1.0% 1.8%
Total 48.5% 51.5% 100%

11. Who are our Prank Stars? Hard calls
Age Female Male Total
5 TO 9 0.7% 1.1% 1.8%
10 TO 14 15.0% 34.2% 49.2%
15 TO 18 8.6% 36.0% 44.6%
19 TO 25 0.4% 4.0% 4.3%
Adult 0.0% 0.1% 0.1%
Total 24.7% 75.3% 100%

12. Themes in Hard and Testing Calls
5 to 9 10 to 14 15 to 18
Males Button Pushing Bullying Sex-Gratification
Noises Sexual, Physical Abuse Masturbation
Bullying Drug Use Relationships
Sexual Abuse Counsellor Abuse Abuse and Penises
Swearing Family Relationships Drug Use
Pregnancy Counsellor Abuse
Smoking Smoking and Physical Abuse
Sex and Masturbation STD’s, Pregnancy
Sexual Identity
Suicide
Drugs
Violence
Females Bullying Bullying Counsellor Abuse
Physical Abuse Family Relationships Partners
Sexual Abuse Sexual/Physical Abuse Concern for others
Family Relationships Partners, Friendships Bullying
Button Pushing Counsellor Abuse Family Relationships
Noises Drug Use, Sex and Contact Relationships
Sexuality, Pregnancy, STD’s Suicide
Masturbation Sexual Identity Friendships
Swearing Weight Drugs
Friendships

13. How does Kids Helpline respond?
All callers are treated with respect
Ongoing counselling with same counsellor
Decision-making and case management is transparent
Child-centred approach
Policy of Duty of Care

14. Service framework for Testing and Hard calls
Acknowledging developmental stages of childhood and adolescence
Natural energy outlet
Boundary testing
Need for guidance
Theme and issue exploration- “out of the closet”
Teaching help-seeking behaviours
Awareness raising relating to counselling process, particularly for males
Modelling help-giving behaviours
Silent and “hang-up calls
Early intervention
Identification of and relationship building with at-risk youth
Case management
Modelling healthy interactions between adults and children
Use of humour
Time given to child-driven agendas
Respectful responses
Call-back to same counsellor

15. Hard calls –generally young adults
Assertive interventions
Partnering with Telecommunications and Police services
Use of “Malicious Call Trace” technology
Use of “Nuisance Caller” line

16. Counsellor Training
“ What’s going on here?”
Four hour interactive training as part of Probationary training program
Training objectives:
‘To increase counsellor resources and efficacy in providing a respectful and
helpful response to all callers including those who “test” out the service’
To provide literature leading to a discussion about what types of issues may
underlie the motivation to test out a service such as KHL?
To ensure there is consistency amongst counsellors in logging testing and
hard calls in the KHL call database’
Review developmental stages and gender differences in children and adolescents
Exploration of themes
Review call data
Small group sharing of enjoyable and challenging testing calls
Identify counsellor’s needs and feelings, before and after consideration of caller’s motivation
Final role-play

17. Supervision and Debriefing
Matrix of supervision:
Real-time shift supervision with immediate debriefing
Real-time computer based case consultation (AS400 messaging)
Clinical Practice supervision once per month for professional development
and career planning