The effect of therapist availability on the frequency of patient-initiated between-session contact

Does therapist availability affect the frequency of patient-initiated between-session phone contacts? There are few empirical data to inform therapists on this question: This study was designed to redress this literature gap. Results demonstrated that in general, therapists' availability policies did not strongly relate to patient-initiated contacts. However, there were some exceptions: The more willing therapists were to receive crisis intervention and mental status update calls, the fewer calls they received. Additionally, when therapists were less willing to be contacted between sessions, patients with personality disorders and/or poor global functioning tended to make more nonemergency calls to the therapist, whereas patients with elevated suicidality tended to make fewer nonemergency calls between sessions. The implications of the results on therapists' policies and patients' expectations are discussed.