Charity
Tuesday, 02 June 2009 08:06
Written by Urbanatomy

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Celebrating four years of confidential support to Shanghai

LifeLine, Shanghai’s free, confidential, anonymous telephone service, has just celebrated its forth anniversary. Staffed by trained volunteers from the international community, the public-benefit, non-profit organization aims to empower people to address their needs and challenges by providing information and somewhere to turn. “Our emotional support calls fall into three main categories: relationship issues, work/life balance and isolation/settling-in,” explains Executive Director Tiffany Wandy.

Relationship issues cover a wide range, and include infidelity, divorce, breakups, addiction issues and abuse. The relationship issues range from domestic violence to an upsetting argument with a partner.

Work/life balance issues come from both the person who is employed as well as their family. The employee is struggling with the stress of settling in to a new company with a new corporate culture. The employee’s family may be suffering for the same reasons. Many accompanying spouses tell LifeLine they feel like they’re single parents because their partner is traveling so much.

Isolation and settling-in calls mostly come from people who have either been here for less than six months or more than two years. People who have been here less than six months may be having trouble adjusting to life in Shanghai: struggling with culture shock, looking for ways to re-invent themselves and having trouble making friends in the city. For people who have been here longer, sometimes their tightly knit network of friends suddenly unravels when one or more leaves Shanghai.

Rather than offer advice, LifeLine subscribes to the Carl Rogers person-centered approach which maintains that people have the ability to find their own solutions to their problems. “We are here to offer information, access to resources, a fresh perspective and a safe, non-judgmental place for callers to explore their options and come up with the best solution for their situation,” says Tiffany. “We do offer referrals on a regular basis – offering three where possible – and sometimes people ring us only for a referral and don’t want to talk, which is completely fine.”

In addition to English, LifeLine offers support in around 14 languages, depending on the volunteer pool at any time and, despite the fact that they don’t yet operate in Mandarin due to governmental restrictions, 20 percent of callers are Chinese. “Our callers come from a wide range of backgrounds, nationalities and ages; there is no ‘typical’ caller,” says Tiffany. “The one uniting factor amongst all the callers is that they are all looking for someone to listen to them in a non-judgmental way.”  //The LifeLine number is 6279 8990. For information on volunteering, visit www.lifelineshanghai.com.

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