Field guide: setting up a hotline
Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; USAID
(2003), vi, 118 pp., illustr., tables, bibliogr. p.118
"Hotlines offer an effective way to provide callers with accurate information, counseling, and referrals to appropriate community-based services or resources. The anonymity of a hotline is a key asset, especially in working with adolescents, because it allows the caller to ask questions that may be difficult or awkward to address in a face-to-face context ... Approaches to using hotlines differ, but in general they aim to: provide accurate and timely information; provide an opportunity for dialogue; give support to callers by listening to them and counseling them when necessary; provide referral information; and identify trends in information requests from the audience. This guide can assist you in starting a hotline or improving and expanding an existing one. It can inform your strategic thinking and planning for a hotline and provide the necessary tools and information in an easy, step-by-step approach to set up your hotline. By sharing our experience and providing examples of hotlines in various countries, we hope to help you decide what will work best in your context and inspire you to create a hotline that will best meet the needs of your audience." (Introduction, p.v-vi)
Contents
1 Deciding if a hotline is appropriate for your organization, 1
2 Designing and structuring a hotline, 9
3 Raising funds and working with donors, 19
4 Recruiting hotline staff, 27
5 Training hotline staff, 39
6 Supervising and debriefing hotline staff, 49
7 Developing referral and information resources, 57
8 Setting up a telephone system and hotline room, 65
9 Developing a data capture tool, 71
10 Monitoring and evaluating a hotline, 79
11 Promoting a hotline, 87
12 Establishing standards and procedures, 93
Appendix A South Africa case study – HIV/AIDS, 99
Appendix B Telephone counseling skills training module, 107
2 Designing and structuring a hotline, 9
3 Raising funds and working with donors, 19
4 Recruiting hotline staff, 27
5 Training hotline staff, 39
6 Supervising and debriefing hotline staff, 49
7 Developing referral and information resources, 57
8 Setting up a telephone system and hotline room, 65
9 Developing a data capture tool, 71
10 Monitoring and evaluating a hotline, 79
11 Promoting a hotline, 87
12 Establishing standards and procedures, 93
Appendix A South Africa case study – HIV/AIDS, 99
Appendix B Telephone counseling skills training module, 107
