Burnout Control
It was week five of no answer, and time for the final message. “If I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume you don’t require services and close your file,” she typed.
Where had the boy gone? Was he still alive? Teenagers don’t call a crisis line and set up counselling for no reason. But they might not attend for a million reasons, some mundane, some worrying. His lack of response gave no clue to which this was.
The desk phone rang loudly, and she answered with her usual spiel.
“Hi,” said a tiny female voice. “I think I need help.”
Extroduction
This week’s story is not-quite-true, but close enough. At charities like the one where I work, the Intake Coordinator has an incredibly valuable job – hers (or his) is the first face or voice young people meet when they come for help. She takes them through a detailed assessment and passes them on to the rest of the team for in-depth services. When she answers that phone, she never knows whether it’ll be the plumber booking an appointment or a person in crisis.
Once a client is on the books, if they don’t attend appointments, it’s her job to follow-up before she can close the file. Clients might fail to attend for any number of reasons – transportation issues, work scheduling clashes, forgetting, getting help elsewhere… or much more upsetting ones.
Such organisations, and the people who work in them, are life-saving, but to avoid burnout everyone has to embrace an uncomfortable truth – you can’t save them all.
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