Running head: CULTURAL IMMERSION

Cultural Immersion
Stephanie Davis
Wilmington University

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Personal Interview & Chosen Culture

Conducting an interview with a client is hard to do with the type of agency which my
placement has occurred. The only real interaction that we have with clients is when working on
the hotline. The crisis hotline is used when people call because they are having issues that need
to be worked through. Often the callers are frequent callers who may call multiple times in a
shift.
ContactLifeline serves many types of clients. In New Castle County they primarily deal with
those who are in need of crisis support. In Kent and Sussex Counties the primary clients are
sexual assault related. In choosing a culture that I was not familiar with I chose to deal with
clients who have mental health disorders such as depression and also have suicidal tendencies or
ideations. I have not had a lot of experience dealing directly with people who suffer mental
health issues nor coupling those with a history of suicide attempts or thoughts.
As previously discussed, the primary method of interaction with clients at ContactLifeline is
through the telephone crisis hotline. However, there are occasional community activities that are
able to be worked by interns and volunteers with the organization. This is what was chosen as
being the direct immersion in interacting with clients. Over the course of my placement I was
able to attend two of these events.
The first event was at a school lead community wellness fair. ContactLifeline was able to set
up a table that not only displayed our resources, but also interact with members of the
community of all ages. I was able to talk with more than one person who shared they had a
history of suicide in their family or that they had used our services to locate support resources for
a family member who was experiencing a crisis. What surprised me about this was their
willingness to share that they had used the suicide prevention resources. However, due to the

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location being very public I did not go into a lot of detail about their reasoning for needing
ContactLifeline services, however, I did ask about their experience with the agency. I received
positive feedback from all persons talked to.
As part of my indirect immersion to this culture I chose to watch the 20/20 interview that
Diane Sawyer did with Sue Klebold, the mother of Dylan Klebold who was one of the shooters
at Columbine High School. At the end of the massacre at Columbine High School Dylan
committed suicide. During this interview Sue Klebold talked about the warning signs that were
present with her son that she ignored because she could not believe that a child that she raised.
This documentary talked about suicidal depression that often is present in adolescents and this
being a problem that parents often shrug off as normal teenage or adolescent behavior. Dylan
Klebold showed signs of depression and suicide long before the massacre at the high school.
Agency Community
ContactLifeline has two locations in Delaware; however, I have only been to one location in
Brandywine Wilmington. Looking for this location, one would not know that they were at a
crisis phone center. The mailing address used is a P.O. Box so the location is also not readily
known.
The Brandywine Wilmington location is in the middle of a neighborhood. The physical
address for the building is 914 Brandywine Boulevard. On the outside of the building and there
is a blue sign that talks about the history of the location. However, there is not a sign identifying
this as ContactLifeline. When arriving one would think they were just arriving at a house in a
neighborhood.

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Access

ContactLifeline is accessed primarily through the telephone hotline when dealing with crisis
situations or at hospital accompaniments when dealing with sexual assault victims. Information
about the agency is distributed through pamphlets, the internet and community related events.
This agency is different than other agencies because while there is direct interaction with clients,
there is not direct interaction with the clients physically.

Receptivity
If you are arriving during the weekday when there is a paid staff member present you would
be able to walk in the front door. However, if you were to arrive during weekends or
nontraditional hours you would have to enter a code to get into the front door. After going
through the front door, there is another foyer area that has a door. During the same periods of

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having to enter a code, this second door is kept closed and locked. When you ring the buzzer the
listener in the call center is able to communicate and ensure that you are supposed to be there. If
you are not buzzed in on weekends or nontraditional hours, you cannot get past this second door.
When you walk through the second door directly in front of you is an office for the Volunteer
Coordinator. There is a big window so that you can see into the office. This window is
decorated with rainbows and colorful decals. This office is also painted a very cheerful yellow
color. To your left when you walk in is a large window that allows you to see through to an
empty office space and the Executive Directors office.
If you continue to walk in to the building and turn left there are three offices and a storage
room with a printer. These offices are for the Executive Director, the Sexual Assault Network of
Delaware Coordinator and an empty office traditionally used for interns. The Executive Director
office is set back to the left of this area. It is carpeted and has two chairs for visitors to sit in.
Turning right from the main entrance there is a stairwell that goes downstairs to more offices
and a restroom. This office was used for the Sexual Assault counselors. They were placed
downstairs to add privacy for those who were coming for counseling. This is no longer used as
this location does not service sexual assault victims.
To the right of the main entrance is the call room for the crisis volunteers. This door is always
kept closed to maintain anonymity of the callers and prevent anyone who has not signed the
privacy statement from hearing the conversations. Across the hall from the listener room is a
conference room. Directly at the end of that hall is a restroom.
Clients are not brought to this location, aside from when they would come for sexual assault
counseling. However, if you were entering the building for another reason then you would not

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know, even after entering, the use of the location. If someone comes into the building asking
questions, no information is given that would identify the use of the location.
Administrative and Staff Training
The administrative staff for ContactLifeline is very small. In total, there are about five paid
administrative staff and roughly 30 volunteers throughout the state. This agency relies heavily
on volunteers, though there are issues in maintaining volunteers over a long term. Because of
this, there are some volunteers who have become paid listeners. Because they are paid listeners
they were required to increase the number of shifts they did each month. The exact number of
paid listeners is not known by anyone outside the administrative staff.
There are a lot of training opportunities that can be done by the administrative staff, and even
training that is open to volunteers. Volunteers would be required to pay for their own training
beyond the initial training covered by the agency. Initial training for volunteers deals a lot with
the sensitivity needed to interact with the different cultures served by the agency.
The administrative staff of the agency is required to attend the training that the volunteers
receive. This training is crucial before working the hotlines as it teaches a lot of the policies and
procedures for the organization. It is not clear if there is an apprentice period on the telephone
lines for the administrative staff as there is with the volunteers. During this apprentice period,
volunteers sit with experienced listeners and are phased into taking telephone calls. This
apprentice period is a total of 24 hours or six shifts. The first two shifts the apprentice listens to
the trainer on all calls. The third and fourth shift the apprentice is allowed to take calls from the
frequent callers. The final two shifts are when the apprentice is supposed to take all of the
telephone calls with only having support for the experienced listener.
Funding

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The funding for ContactLifeline comes from grants. These grants are from banks, federal
agencies, state agencies as well as private organizations who are sponsoring grants. There is a
challenge in finding funding that deals with suicide support in the way that ContactLifeline
would need. As a result of this, the agency finds ways of tying in this support with other grants
as long as it can be done legitimately. An example of this is when a caller talks about suicidal
ideations and mentions sexual assault or mental illness then all of three things are outlined in the
call report.
ContactLifeline also owns the grant for the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware Coordinator.
This is position brings together all of the agencies in the state of Delaware that deal with sexual
assault. This position allows for a lot of sexual assault resources to be purchased for
ContactLifeline, mainly educational materials that are not able to be purchased under the other
grants received by the agency.
Due to the primary funding for the agency being grants, there are a lot of struggles that are
faced. These struggles include ensuring that they are able to provide services while not violating
their grants. Additionally, they face not having a grant renewed and loosing funding. This was
seen with the New Castle County Sexual Assault funding for Delaware. ContactLifeline had
been the owner of the grant previously, but the Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA)
competed and won the grant starting in 2015.
Staff Sensitivity
In all, the staff at ContactLifeline is sensitive to the needs of their clients. However, that does
not mean there is necessarily 100% following of the rules about not having sidebar conversations
about clients. However, when these conversations do occur it is in a restricted area around only
people who would have a need to know about the client. I believe that this is made easier due to

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the building being restricted to only those who have signed the confidentiality agreement. Most
of the conversations that I experienced were in the restricted phone room.
There is not a lot of stereotyping that occurs at ContactLifeline, or that I witnessed during the
course of my internship. On the contrary point, any stereotyping that may have started to occur
was quickly corrected by the staff. At ContactLifeline they strive to be nonjudgmental between
their clients and volunteers.

NASW Standards for Cultural Competence

When dealing with different cultures of clients it is important to maintain a level of standard
and professionalism. The Ethical Standards for Human Services Professionals offers a good
basis for this concept.
With ContactLifeline, dealing with not just the population chosen for the cultural immersion
but with all clients in the agency standard seven is a good standard to keep in mind. This
standard is Human service professionals ensure that their values or biases are not imposed upon
their clients (National Organization for Human Services, 2016). The golden rule for
ContactLifeline is though shall not give advice. This rule is directly involved with the human
services standard. Due to many of the clients being in crisis or looking for solutions to what is
happening in their life it would be very easy for a listener or support worker to give advice that
could be laced with their personal bias. It is more important to give the client to tools to work
through the situation on their own.
Standard four is also pertinent to the cultures interacted with by ContactLifeline. This
standard is If it is suspected that danger or harm may occur to the client or to others as a result
of a client's behavior, the human service professional acts in an appropriate and professional

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manner to protect the safety of those individuals. This may involve, but is not limited to, seeking
consultation, supervision, and/or breaking the confidentiality of the relationship (National
Organization for Human Services, 2016). This is an especially important standard that needs to
be in place at ContactLifeline. The reasoning for this is that it is possible the clients that are
calling in could be in real danger of harming themselves and the staff and listeners at
ContactLifeline have the responsibility to do their best to get that individual assistance.

Final Thoughts
Looking at the cultures interacted with on a daily basis at ContactLifeline it was hard to place
one that I had no experience dealing with. While I have had training in understanding suicidal
behaviors and mental health, I have not had a lot of interactions with actual clients in these areas.
This assignment gave me a deeper insight in being culturally aware of dealing with others who
do not fit societal norms.
While there are holes in what the agency can do with limited funding, ContactLifeline staff
does a good job in plugging these areas as best as they can by stretching the limited resources.
The training that is provided does a good job in maximizing the cultural sensitivity and keeping
the staff up to date on the various areas interacted with by the agency.
In all, the staff and volunteers do a good job in being sensitive to their clients, maintaining
confidentiality and ensuring 24 hour telephone availability to callers. This shows a level of
dedication to clients that may not be seen in an agency that does not have telephone lines. In all,
this assignment has broadened my knowledge on the different cultures that can be served in the
human services field.

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References
ABC News (2016). 20/20 Diane Sawyer Interview with Sue Klebold: Mother of Columbine
Shooter Dylan.
National Organization for Human Services (2016). Ethical Standards for Human Service
Professionals. Retrieved from: www.nationalhumanservices.org