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ABSTRACT
Universities have a responsibility to develop appropriate interventions to respond to the mental health needs of their students. Students’ use of technology is an integral part of how they communicate and relate to the world; it is reasonable to consider engaging the internet and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for mental health service delivery. Internet-delivered counselling brings with it many distinct advantages, but also challenges. Investigating the effectiveness of any internet-delivered counselling intervention is important so as to establish a sound evidence-based practice. A unique feature of online delivery is that the internet can facilitate community and therefore allow counselling interventions to act therapeutically for an online community of users. This paper reports on the use of the online counselling service at Trinity College Dublin, including its uptake and usage, the issues and benefits of online counselling to students and whether clients are satisfied with their experience of online counselling. The paper highlights the positive effect of disinhibition and the therapeutic benefit of writing. Single session counselling is discussed as a model that fits the experience of users and the service provider. Users have reported satisfaction with online counselling and the service's impact within the community of users is complementary. The benefits of increasing access, flexibility and on-time and on-demand services are given attention as is the use of online counselling as an element of a stepped care approach to service delivery.
Acknowledgements
Some parts of this paper were presented previously at the FEDORA Psyche conference in Greece, in September 2007.