Help Line Workshop: Sharpen your listening skills and learn some things about how to respond in mental health emergencies

OVERVIEW

SOO you’re an incredibly awesome Tripleader and you’re super comfortable all the time in the outdoors. You know how to pack, to predict the weather, to avoid catastrophes and maybe even how to splint a leg or perform CPR. But do you know what to do when the danger/injury isn’t physically present? Do you want to learn some tried and true listening skills and ways to support a person when they’re going through an emotionally tough moment?

UVA Helpline is a crisis line staffed by student volunteers who’ve been trained to handle mental health crises, and they want to teach us some of the key basics so that our awesome ODC Tripleaders can feel more comfortable responding to any of these that might happen on your trip! This will be lecture-esque, with a few activities, opportunities for Q&A, and breakout groups with HL representatives at the end where we can dig deeper and maybe even practice how we would respond to different situations. We anticipate taking 2hrs, and for you to walk away feeling better equipped to respond to mental health struggles and emergencies on your trips (:

These are some hypothetical situations we think that Tripleaders might find themselves in and we’ll be teaching you guidelines for responding to. There’s a question in the signup where you can write down the ones that you are most afraid of / likely to encounter and we’ll help you work through a response plan!

– Your group lost the trail and you’re low on food & water when someone trips and starts crying. You clean the wound easily but they won’t stop crying.
– You’re belaying someone at the top of a climb and a rock comes down next to them. It doesn’t hit anyone, but they suddenly have a very difficult time breathing and can’t respond to anything you say.
– A person on your sunrise hike starts complaining about the person who they slept with last night. The more they talk, the less consensual the encounter sounds, and the more upset they seem about the situation.
– Your co-leader pulls someone out of another person’s tent on your trip, and takes them aside, leaving them inside their tent. You want to go inside and talk to them, what will you say? What if that person was just assaulted?
– We’re sitting around a fire talking about our parents when someone gets really upset and leaves. When you follow and ask if they’re ok, they tell you that their parent is a recovering alcoholic and mistreated them growing up

Expectations
We will be addressing heavy topics during this workshop that may affect some more than others. We ask that if you are signing up for this trip, you are respectful of everyone’s viewpoints or experiences with a topic. This is a no judgment zone. We want all trip attendees to feel comfortable with sharing and with stepping out at any time if they need to.