Online Counselling Prospects and limits of virtual assistance

Online Counselling

Prospects and limits

of virtual assistance

Agenda



Institution



Institutional Branches



Online Counselling Concept

The Institution

The non-profit organization Mädchenhaus Bremen e.V. (meaning girls shelter, according to battered women

shelter) was founded in 1992 and offers a variety of support services for girls, who have been suffering from physical, sexual or emotional abuse, providing assistance to their individual needs. The institution is based on five main sections:

 Crises Centre

 Emergency Phone Service

 Counselling Centre

 Long-Term Residence

The

Crisis Centre

offers care to girls in accordance with the German youth laws.

 Up to seven girls between the age of 12-17 can be admitted at the same time.

 The anonymous address of the centre guarantees immediate protection from further violence.

 Girls can stay at the Crisis Centre for a maximum period of three months.

 During this time, girls can develop plans and strategies for the future under the guidance of counsellors of the centre, the public office

An

Emergency Phone Service for girls

operates 24 hours a day, including offering the possibility

to accommodate girls at the crises centre at any time.

At the

Counselling Centre

, two psychologists and one social worker offer confidential advice to girls for a limited period of time. The advice is given

anonymous and free of charge.

The

Long-Term residence

can accommodate up to seven girls of at least 14 years of age.

 Girls who have experienced violence within the family and

therefore can no longer live at home may stay for an extended period of time.

 Girls receive support for daily problems, being trained in independent living skills

as well as get assistance in crisis situations.

The

Ambulant Care

offers assistance to girls and young women living

Some figures

 All together 30 professionals work for the institution, most of them with a degree in social work.

 In 2008 110 girls stayed at the Crises Centre.

 Over the last 17 years 86 girls were given accommodation in the Long-Term Residence.

 120 girls and young women came to an initial interview to the Counselling Centre in the year 2008.

Online Counselling

For five years the Counseling Centre offers Online Counselling. The internet platform is divided in three sections.

1. 60 pages offer lots of information.

2. A discussion forum is open to everybody. 3. A “safe area” provides a

one-by-one counselling in a separate and closed section. Both communication sections,

the forum and the safe area

Quality Standards of the communication sections

 Before publishing on the website all threads of the forum have to be read by a member of the Counselling Centre.

 This system guarantees that no kind of abuse can happen in the open space section.

 Also all threads dealing with a serious problem will be answered immediately with the release of the article.

 From Monday until Thursday we offer a day-by-day service.

All postings sent from Thursday to Sunday will be published

Different levels of virtual counselling

information  communication

self empowerment  professional information, counselling

one by one communication  group based communication

Factors of success of the online counselling platform

Low-threshold service given:



Easy Accessibility:

 location-independent

 time-independent



Anonymous



Self-determination:

The user itself decides when getting in contact and when stopping the contact

Factors of success (cont.)

Safety:

given by anonymous registration, a moderated forum, high standard of data security

Transparency:

easy navigation, clearly structured design, complete information about the institution providing the online counselling

Binding character:

because of a definite time to get a answer

Peer to peer communication

is explicit welcome

Quality features

Prevention:

The user can ask all questions spontaneously

without negative attributions like mental illness or other labeling. In this way online counselling sometimes can stop acute

symptoms before getting chronic.

Motivation:

The Mädchenhaus does not aim at providing a kind of long term online therapy.

The concept is based on the aim to help girls with serious problems

Quality features (cont.)

Cooperation:

To provide serious information close contact with the public office of youth welfare and with other institutions is

needed.

To give the girls information about a specific

counselling center in another town, it is necessary to get in contact with many institutions.

During the weekend and within the night the counselling centre can’t offer any kind of help. To guarantee support during this period it has a close cooperation with

emergency phone service and

Statistic 2004 – 2009

0 10.000 20.000 30.000 40.000 50.000 60.000 70.000 80.000 90.000 Sep 04 Jan 05 Mai 05 Sep 05 Jan 06 Mai 06 Sep 06 Jan 07 Mai 07 Sep 07 Jan 08 Mai 08 Sep 08 Jan 09 Mai 09

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total new user 163 317 413 391 315 1599 Forum: new threads 94 192 368 409 340 1403 postings 248 632 1130 1105 1048 4163 Counselling by professionals 72 117 246 278 353 1049 Safe Area: New threads 47 111 169 114 155 596 Postings 83 203 318 287 566 1457 Counselling by professionals 72 186 311 273 499 1341 Top Thema: New theme 3 1 1 2 1 8 Postings 12 15 20 15 24 86 Counselling by professionals 2 3 3 1 8 17

All postings written by girls 5706