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The Danish research- and development project on chat counselling

Chat Counseling

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The Danish research- and development project on chat counselling

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Trine Natasja Sindahl

MSc in Psychology, Copenhagen University.

Work at the Danish child helpline: BørneTelefonen, since 2007.Supervision and method development.

Worked with anonymous counselling services since 1995.

Part-time lecturer at Copenhagen University – Department of Psychology. Teach how to develop and evaluate social interventions.

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Todays presentation

• Main findings from the Danish research- and development programme on chat counselling

• Small break

• Questions and discussion

• A peek at out text service (BørneTelefonen på SMS)

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Main points

1. Counselling for children and youth should be offered in a variety of medias

2. General counselling skills are just as or even more important than media specific skills

3. We should not ask if our service is popular, but if it is useful

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Brief about Børns Vilkår

Founded 1977300 volunteers educated in working with children25.000 counselling sessions in 201145 employeesWorking for all children in Denmark; however, a strong focus on children at riskBørneTelefonen established in 1987

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2001=:-)=:-);-)=);-)=)

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BørneChatten 2001-2011

4571049 913 782

1109 877 1053

1846

2764

4188

8335

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

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Research- and development programme on chat counselling, 2007-2011

Research publications:• Literature review of international chat

counselling research• Article presenting an analysis of 15 chat

counselling sessions• Comparison study: chat and telephone

counselling • Results and recommendation based on the

method-development project• Children’s view of the Danish chat

counselling service• Children’s view on online help

– Handbook in chat counselling

Developing:• A new software for conducting chat

counselling• Increasing children’s access to chat

counselling• The chat counselling methodology• A website for children that supports

the counselling• A training programme in chat

counselling

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What I want to share with you …

• Advantages and disadvantages

• The users

• Developing alliance

• What works?

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Why chat?• Choice• Feeling of control• Anonymity• Writing• Free• Silent• Independent of place• Can be combined with

other online tools• - and it works!

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Possibilities for the organisation

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Why not?

• Simultaneous• Time consuming• Misunderstandings and

conflicts• Disinhibition effect• Loose contact• Virtual identities• Difficult to make risk

assessment• Digital divided• Technical problems!

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Children and youth in chat counselling

• Compared with telephone counselling we see – across countries – the same tendencies:– Even more girls– A little bit older (Child helplines)– Larger amount of serious and

complex problems, neglected and violated children.

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The typical user of a chat counselling service …

• … is a girl• … in puberty• … with serious and complex problems• … who doesn’t want to be exposed• … and who prefer time and quietness to articulate how she feels

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Working alliance

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Can it do harm?

• Must not compromise the users wellbeing, rights or confidentiality

• Must not contribute to lesser wellbeing or stand in the way of more effective help

• Will it replace necessary help?• Will it contribute to development of

dependency?

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Effects of chat counselling• De Kindertelefoon, The Netherlands

– Fukkink, R. & Hermanns, J. (2007): Children’s Experiences with the Kindertelefoon; Telephone Support Compared to Chat Support. SCO-Kohnstamm Instituut.

• Kids HelpLine, Australia– King, R., Bambling, M., Reid, W. & Thomas, I. (2006b): “Telephone and online counselling for

young people: A naturalistic comparison of session outcome, session impact and therapeutic alliance”. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research vol. 6(3) Sep 2006, pp. 175-181.

• SAHAR, Israel– Barak, A. & Bloch, N. (2006): “Factors related to perceived helpfulness in supporting highly

distressed individuals through an online support chat”. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9(1), 60-68.

• BRIS, Sweden– Andersson, K. & Osvaldsson, K. (2011): Utvärdering av BRIS Internetbaserede stödkontakter.

Executive summary. Linköpings universitet.

• Børns Vilkår, Denmark

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1. I feel better/worse2. I was (not) taken seriously3. We (did not) talk about, what I

wanted to talk about4. I (don’t) have a better overview of

my problem5. I (don’t) know what to do now

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What works?

Phase 3

When the child gets a better overview of

its problems When the child gets an idea of what to

do

Phase 4

When the child has talked about what it

wanted to talk about

When the child is taken seriously

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Conclusions

• Be present on several medias

• Chat counselling offers a useful way of getting in contact with children at risk

• Chat counselling works

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Why a texting service too?”I think there are many that are too shy to talk to an adult, they don’t know – texting is easier”

”Then your mother can’t see it if you share a computer”

“Uou can write even if you are not at home – if you are sitting outside… or just lying in bed … you don’t have to start up the computer.”

”you can take it with you on your mobile”

”A lot of times I wanted to contact you during school hours or something like that – I will be able to do that on text”

”…it’s very smart – you can write when you are in class without disturbing the class”

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Developing the service

• Our counselling methodology should dictate the system – not vice versa

• However we wanted to utilize the advantages off this specific media

• We worked hard to get the number 116 111 – and succeeded!

• We stand on the shoulders of giants

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I think it sounds very interesting, but my

thombs hurts so much when I text

I think it sounds very interesting, but my

thombs hurts so much when I text

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624 counselling sessions

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Anyquestions?