We were trapped on hold and smoked while being teased by a hilarious jingle. Or you can get frustrated and hang up when the same boring song starts for the 16th time.
But what if the call isn’t about a cell phone upgrade or a refund for a plane ticket? What if that music could save someone on the worst day of their life? What song will you play?
this is, With just a few months left until the country’s new suicide crisis helpline, 988, goes live, Toronto’s Addiction and Mental Health Center needs to answer that question.
More than a year later, the National Helpline’s trained responders have responded to more than 315,000 calls and text messages. In October, there were 22,654 voice calls with an average hold time of 44 seconds. (For text chats, the wait time for a reply has increased by about 1 minute.)
This is an astonishing record considering the length of time people have to wait. However, a 2012 study by customer engagement firm Bellaro suggested that 60 percent of people can only wait a minute before hanging up, and 30 percent may refuse to wait at all. These are worrying findings for the Suicide Prevention Helpline.
So please secure it even for a few tens of seconds. In late summer 2023, passing as smoothly as possible became a key consideration for the CAMH team. And choosing the right hold music is key.
“We want to create an environment that supports people and doesn’t cause them further distress,” said Alison Crawford, the helpline’s chief medical officer. “If they feel hopeful about their music choices, that’s even better.”
But when clinical teams looked for science to guide their decision-making, they didn’t find much research on music on hold or helplines. According to Dr. Crawford, they knew that sound was better than silence, because otherwise “people start to feel less connected and feel anxious.” Research on customer service suggests that slower tempos make wait times appear shorter. Also, if your selection is too short and you have to loop over and over again, the wait time will seem long.
The lyrics were considered to be open to unintended interpretation. They wanted to avoid music that fit too narrowly into one genre. Country tunes can turn off rock fans, and vice versa. Given the range of callers, the time spent on hold needed to be welcoming to everyone.
Helen Davis, Helpline’s communications and marketing manager, used these guidelines to scroll through the center’s extensive music subscription database, which it uses for multimedia and promotional projects. She looked for samples that were neither bright nor sad, but neutral enough to not stir up strong emotions. They couldn’t make the music so busy that it overwhelmed the callers, but they also never made it too boring. Davis also said: “We had to make sure it was as unobtrusive as possible for as many people as possible.”
Listen to the hold music here:
She came up with 10 options to present to community advisors, a committee made up of people with experience of mental health and suicide. This group provided input With a helpline, including a website, voice prompts when you call, and a manual to train responders.
Oshawa adult educator Kristen Bellows was in the room that day. In 2016, she was pregnant and struggling with the following feelings: After receiving a mental health diagnosis, Bellows called the helpline and was on hold for about 30 minutes before hanging up. The same thing happened the next day when she tried the helpline’s chat feature. Fortunately, she calmed down. But when CAMH called for volunteers to do national phone calls, she thought her voice might spare others the experience.
Mr. Bellows listened to the sample. “I started thinking about all the hold music we hear,” she said. “That can have a huge impact on how you approach the conversation with the person who answers the phone.” So she asked herself, “Would I be okay with listening to this for 15 minutes?”
One of the choices reminded her of something from a Netflix soundtrack. bridgerton A series that turns pop songs into swoon-worthy classic numbers. She refused the second time because it felt like she was on an epic fantasy quest. She removed lighter samples that could have made the caller feel criticized. “When you’re in a place this dark, you can’t think clearly,” she said. “Hearing words that are far from how you feel can make you feel worse.”
In the end, she followed her instincts and went into the meeting with a clear “no,” “maybe,” and what she liked best. She found that the group of community advisors generally agreed. They came up with three preferred options and after one option was eliminated due to poor audio quality on the phone, the top option was selected.
The final choice is one of Ms. Bellows’ top choices: gentle, A 4 minute piano piece. “We all felt it settle in,” she said. “It’s like taking a deep breath and imagining yourself playing.”
CAMH’s helpline team has already begun an evaluation process to consider all aspects of the service, consulting with users who have used the service in its first year. And if people don’t like the piano melody, Dr. Crawford said, “we’ll test new music.”
