Collaborative Research: FW-HTF-P: Supporting future crisis line work through the inclusive design of worker-facing tools that empower self-management of wellbeing and performance

这项计划拨款的长期目标是创建评估和信息学工具，使危机热线工作人员(CLW)能够自我监控、发展技能，并更好地管理他们的个人福祉和咨询业绩。咨询热线是非正式医疗体系的重要组成部分，通过电话或短信提供即时的心理健康支持。事实证明，这种服务在减少绝望、心理痛苦和自杀方面是有效的。研究发现，18-24岁的年轻人和学生经历这些心理问题的比例不成比例，这导致了全国大学校园心理健康问题的公认升级。与此同时，这项工作的性质使CLW本身处于职业倦怠、继发性创伤应激和同情疲劳的高风险之中。反过来，这种痛苦对CLWS的工作表现产生了负面影响，给CLWS和依赖他们的客户造成了一个痛苦和脆弱的循环。我们的范围是校园和校园附近的危机热线组织(CLO)和CLW，他们管理着未得到充分服务的大学生的心理健康需求。来自该项目的见解可以改善员工福利、工作绩效和客户福利，以应对更广泛的背景，这些背景涉及利用信息通信技术为需要支持的客户提供服务的高压力、高风险工作。鉴于最近在未来危机线工作、工人和技术方面的转变，这一议程与FW-HTF的目标紧密一致。具体地说，虽然CLO传统上通过员工培训计划管理实体呼叫中心，但许多新服务允许CLW在线培训、在家进行现场通信，并更灵活地自定义时间表。此外，我们与CLO合作伙伴的初步互动表明，校园咨询中心正在从随叫随到的人员配备转向将危机热线支持外包给供应商，这些供应商提供全天候服务和互动报告，辅导员根据需要跟进。此外，虽然最初仅限于电话，但越来越多地通过包括短信和网络应用程序在内的现代信息通信技术提供危机服务。最后，在这类平台中越来越多地使用“更智能”的功能来自动化响应或帮助分类通信。总而言之，这些变化正在影响危机处理工作的做法以及工人预期的技能，因为新兴技术加强或取代了CLWS工作的各个方面。在高层次上，我们的工作将向重点领域以及最有可能被CLO和CLWS接受的监测技术和干预类型提供信息，以改善他们的福祉和福利。这个项目汇集了几个学科，包括以人为中心的设计、计算机科学和人机交互、通信科学和社会行为，以及心理健康评估和干预。研究人员团队的结构是为了实现多个趋同目标。首先，通过培养与CLO的关系和开展有需求的接触，我们将加深对CLWS的工作环境、经验、风险和需求的了解。其次，这一发现阶段将对CLWS的自我监控和自我照顾工具产生设计影响。第三，与CLW的迭代合作设计将确定并启动针对这些需求的有效解决方案(例如，信息学、干预)的形成性开发，并阐明这些工具可能对CLW的个人福祉和专业实践以及反过来对客户福利产生的潜在影响。总体而言，该项目将巩固在FW-HTF-R提案层面进行研究所需的团队、合作伙伴关系和基础知识。该项目由人类-技术前沿交叉部门工作未来计划资助，旨在通过推进与人类工人和谐运作的智能工作技术的设计，促进对工作环境中相互依赖的人类-技术伙伴关系的更深层次的基本了解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This planning grant’s long-term aim is to create assessment and informatics tools that empower Crisis Line Workers (CLWs) to self-monitor, develop skills, and better manage both their personal wellbeing and counseling performance. Counseling hotlines are a critical part of the informal healthcare system, providing immediate mental health support through telephone or text messaging. Such services have proven effective at decreasing hopelessness, psychological pain, and suicidality. Research finds 18–24 year olds and students disproportionately experience these psychological issues, contributing to a recognized escalation in mental health problems on college campuses nationwide. At the same time, the nature of the work puts CLWs themselves at high risk of burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue. In turn, such distress negatively impacts CLWs' job performance, creating a cycle of distress and vulnerability for both CLWs and the clients who depend on them. Our scope is campus and campus-adjacent crisis line organizations (CLOs) and CLWs who manage the underserved mental health needs of college populations. Insights from this project could improve worker welfare, job performance, and client welfare for broader contexts involving high-stress, high-stakes work that employs information communication technology to serve clients in need of support. This agenda tightly aligns with FW-HTF objectives given recent shifts in future crisis line work, workers, and technology. Specifically, while CLOs traditionally managed physical call centers with training programs for workers, many new services allow CLWs to train online, field communications from home, and more flexibly self-define schedules. Further, our initial interactions with CLO partners indicate campus counseling centers are moving away from on-call staffing to outsourcing crisis line support to vendors that provide around-the-clock services and interaction reports that counselors follow up on as needed. In addition, while originally limited to telephone calls, crisis services are increasingly being delivered through modern information communication technologies, including text messaging and web applications. Finally, “smarter” features are increasingly being utilized within such platforms to automate responses or help triage communication. Together, these changes are impacting the practices of crisis line work as well as the skills expected of workers due to emerging technologies augmenting or replacing various aspects of CLWs’ efforts. At a high level, our work will inform focus areas as well as the types of monitoring technologies and interventions most likely to be accepted by CLOs and CLWs toward improving their wellbeing and welfare.This project brings together several disciplines, including human-centered design, computer science and human-computer interaction, communication sciences and social behavior, and mental health assessment and intervention. The investigator team is structured to achieve multiple convergent goals. First, by cultivating relationships with CLOs and undertaking needfinding engagements, we will deepen understanding of CLWs’ work circumstances, experiences, risks, and needs. Second, this discovery phase will produce design implications for self-monitoring and self-care tools for CLWs. Third, iterative co-design with CLWs will identify and initiate formative development of effective solutions (e.g., informatics, interventions) responsive to these requirements and clarify the potential impacts such tools can have on CLW personal wellbeing and professional practices and, in turn, client welfare. Overall, this project will solidify the team, partnerships, and foundational knowledge needed to pursue research at the level of a FW-HTF-R proposal. This project has been funded by the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier cross-directorate program to promote deeper basic understanding of the interdependent human-technology partnership in work contexts by advancing design of intelligent work technologies that operate in harmony with human workers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.