Telephone help line runs hot with assistance on hand
Lin Juan, a psychological consultant volunteering at a hotline, has been busier than usual given the number of people in lockdown as a result of epidemic control measures.
Lin has been working at hotline 12338, specifically assisting women, for more than three years.
Callers have become increasing anxious about being infected, not knowing how to get the registration code for nucleic acid tests and how to see a doctor under lockdown.
Psychological assistance has come into play to ease their tensions, she told Shanghai Daily.
Lin Juan receives phone calls at the hotline's office.
What impressed her was a phone call received on Thursday morning.
An anxious husband said his pregnant wife had missed an obstetric examination on Tuesday as she's under the community's 14-day quarantine set to end on March 28. He is hopeful she will not miss her next due examination a week later as her due date is April 2.
Thinking of the tragic miscarriage of a woman with an eight-month pregnancy in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, in January, he would not calm down.
After listening to his concerns patiently, Lin told him there's a green channel for the pregnant, and the community will be sure to offer help.
His concerns were immediately handed over to local community. Local community workers visited his wife and contacted a doctor from Shanghai International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital to undertake a telehealth check-up.
In another phone call, a woman said there was a confirmed case upstairs, but she didn't know whether it was the neighbors she chatted with some days earlier. She was afraid of being infected, and complained that the community had not released information about the case.
Lin replied to her that she understood her anxiety, but there was no need to be afraid. If she was a close contact, she would have been quarantined already. Meanwhile, the community was just trying to protect the privacy of the case.
The 12338 hotline
The two cases are typical and common during the pandemic, Lin said.
She compared the hotline to an intermediary between residents and their communities, helping to erase misunderstandings and enhancing communication.
"Our hotline is a container of their emotions," Lin said. "It's like a buffer zone, otherwise there must be contradictions. It's not only helpful for easing the burden of medical staff, but also for these help seekers."
In this way, community workers can focus more on supporting dabai (literally "big white," a nickname for medical staff wearing protective suits).
The nationwide telephone hotline 12338, set up in 2005, provides counseling and services to women victims or survivors of domestic violence. Its service hour has been extended from 9am-5pm to 9am-9pm every day since March 1.
The volunteer team of the city's hotline consists of nearly 20 people from different professions, such as policemen, lawyers and professors.
They always reply to callers with patience, warmth and empathy based on their professional knowledge and working experiences. On the other hand, the job also helps them refresh their perceptions to the world.
The average number of calls is 2,000 to 3,000 per year. Sixty percent of them are consultants about family rights and interests according to the statistics from January 1, 2019, to July 1, 2021.
The hotline always calls back to those special cases to follow up their recent situation, according to Lin.
Each caller can make free appointments for face-to-face psychological counseling.
The consultant problems from callers generally align with current hot issues in the society, helping the women's federation to make better proposals to the government.
