Taboo subjects fair game for suicide hotline

By Zhao Yanrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-16 08:24

Taboo topics such as gay love and sexual relationships outside marriage have been set as questions at a two-day recruitment interview for suicide prevention hotline trainees at Huilongguan Hospital this week.

Huilongguan Hospital, a key medical institution specializing in mental health in China, was recruiting 20 hotline trainee consultants on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"The questions are chosen because they are common topics for our hotline," Wang Cuiling, tutor of the suicide prevention hotline operators at Huilongguan Hospital, told METRO Thursday.

"We have to make sure hotline consultants can treat these sensitive issues objectively and provide professional advice."

According to Wang, 50 candidates were interviewed this week out of the 90 who applied for the program. That total is 10 fewer than in 2008.

Most of the candidates were majors in psychology and have obtained a professional psychologist certification from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

More than half have relevant work experience, Wang said.

Suicide prevention hotline consultants need great communication skills, Wang said.

"We have to help our callers to move away from their extreme ideas in a very short time," he said.

Twenty applicants were selected on Thursday and will be offered one-year contract at the hospital that will start on Tuesday.

More than 80 trainees have participated in the hotline program since 2004, but only 28 remain with the organization.

"Most are from outside Beijing and consider the program as a chance to get into work in Beijing, but we don't offer a large salary and they need to consider that first," said Liu Jing, director of the press office at the hospital.

The "800-810-1117" hotline number was opened in 2002, when it became the first free suicide prevention hotline in China. It has helped more than 110,000 people nationwide who have undergone psychological problems.

The hotline is seen as a sensible response to China's mental health issues.

"The mental intervention hotline is a perfect first stop in the effort to help clients handle their psychological issues," said Shi Zhanbiao, deputy director of the mental intervention center of the institute of psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.