and nonbias the volunteers and counsellors go through rigorous training before answering actual calls head counsellor and psychologist from mpower dilshad khurana says receivers of such calls have to speak with absolutely no judgement or bias the person on the other end of the call is already in distress so the first thing we have to do is calm them down and mentally bring them to a place of comfort it is also important for our volunteers and counsellors to provide them the assurance of confidentiality proper training is provided to the helpline workers and its also refreshed with courses periodicallyselfcare an important tool for helpline workerslistening to distress calls and pleas for help for hours on a daily basis can be a harrowing experience for helpline workers hence every helpline organisation has a watertight selfcare program in place when my team does backtoback calls or when there is a surge in calls i encourage them to switch off completely after the call when there are difficult cases we discuss and take support from each other while maintaining anonymity and confidentiality of the caller we even have mental health holidays shares dilshad for volunteers at mitram foundation a bangalorebased helpline too there is a selfcare program we have a volunteer care system where we can also talk about a call that may have been distressing every month we have a refresher that keeps reminding us of the purpose of the task says rani a volunteerno closure or validation but we know weve helpedone of the most difficult aspects of being a suicidehelpline worker is the fact that there is no way of knowing if the caller is going to act on the solutions discussed on the call due to the condition of anonymity and professional detachment this rule is followed by the helplines nobody really hands out a validation to us for taking a call late at night or handling a call for countless hours in fact we dont even know if we have been successful at dissuading the person from taking a drastic step but we still do it every day hoping that we have managed to prevent someone from ending their life says avantikaheena adds we remind the callers that they can always call us back if they feel suicidal thoughts are still plaguing them but in the end it is not our decision it bothers me for a moment after the call but then the phone rings again and we have to attend to the caller at handknow the red flags of a person who is suicidal they are sensitive to negative emotions and criticism they overrate the negative emotions actions and situations and act on it they dont sleep much they keep ruminating on their purpose and are unresponsive to other emotions there is help seeking initiative in most cases as a last resort to change their minds they often talk about end of life and after life their internet history may have research