Virtual Counseling and Advice Service (VCAS)

What NEED does this meet?

There are two groups of people for whom existing counseling and advice services, whether telephone-based based (like the Samaritans) or based in a centre of some kind (Citizen’s Advice Bureau), are not adequate:

1) People who, through disability, depression or lack of confidence feel unable to call a helpline or visit a centre.

For example, I have a good friend who is disabled (she suffers from a painful jaw condition which is exacerbated by stress) and suffers from depression. She needs counselling and advice on a number of issues.

However, she is also painfully shy. To the point she will hide in her bedroom rather than answer the door.

She has even set up appointments with a counsellor, but the thought of going has stressed her out, which has exacerbated her jaw condition leading to her suffering physical pain.

Likewise she finds all telephone conversations stressful (partly due to low self confidence and partly due to the need to move her jaw), let alone ones in which she is expecting to discuss her innermost secrets and fears.

Therefore she never receives the counseling or advice she so desperatly needs.

2) People who do not want to seek counseling or advice because the feel embarrased or ashamed

There are many people who have problems they feel ashamed of.

For example:

- people who are in debt or facing bankruptcy
- people who have physically abused a partner
- young people struggling with their sexuality
- people who are experienceing sexual feelings which they feel are inapropriate, such as attraction to a relative or child
- a teenage girl who has started her period but, though lack of education or parental support, is unaware of what’s happening or what to do about it

It’s easy to see that people who would perhaps want help, advice or counselling of some kind might be too ashamed to call a helpline, and would certainly be too frightened to meet someone in person.

What is the APPROACH?

What I would to be able to offer my friend and people like her, is a counselling and advice website, manned by trained volunteers such as those from the Samaritans and/or the Citizens’ Advice Bureau.

Anyone would be able to go there to ask for practical advice, support or counselling.

There are of course many excellent services which offer support, both in person and by telephone.

However, the HUGE advantage of a web-based service is that it is, and feels, anonymous.

Although a phone service is, to all intents, annymous the person has to speak to somebody on the phone. For many people, such as my friend, this is stressful, painful or shameful and puts them off.

From a technical perspective there are two possible routes:

1) The system could operate using an Instant Messaging type service (perhaps AJAX-, Java- or Flash-based). There are already systems like this in existence, which are mainly used for sales or support. Or a bespoke one could be written.

Volunteers would answer queries in real time.

Ignoring any cost or technical implications, this would be the ideal solution, from the users perspective, as it would create a conversation-like experience.

2) Alternatively the system could use a private message board. Users would be able to set up an account, which they could then log into at a later date.

Volunteers could then answer their questions within a set period (24-48 hrs).

Although this solution may be more practical, it does mean people have to tell heir entire story in one go, which would not be ideal.

Accessibility
It is very important the site should be at least AA or AAA accessible – as one of the main target audiences is people who don’t feel able to or can’t contact a helpline or advice center because of a disability.

For example, a deaf person won’t be able to call most helplines.

Anonymity
It is important that the user is able to maintain a feeling of anonymity. Therefore the site would have to be careful to make it clear it did not store IP addresses etc and would not hand any information to a third party, ideally even under duress.

Some of the people who would benefit from the site are those who feel too ashamed to speak to a real person either in person or by phone. In some cases this will be purely for reasons of confidence or cultural stigma – for example a young gay man struggling with his sexuality.

However some may have genuine reason to be nervous about seeking help. For example, a husband who has hit his wife or a person who finds themselves sexually attracted to young children.

It is important that such people are able to approach the website without fear their information will be passed on to the police or social services.

This is not just for the benefit of the people contacting the service, but for the benefit of the people they may end up harming if they are not able to seek support. Obviously this service will not be able to work miracles, but it may be able to mitigate damage in certain circumstances.

Editorial content
In addition there would be articles and faqs on common problems and queries, to answer basic questions.

What are the BENEFITS to people?

The benefit of the Virtual Counseling and Advice Service is, I hope, clear.

People who are to shy, stressed, disabled, embarrassed or ashamed to contact a counsellor or advice service will be able to use the website to ask for advice from a trained or qualified volunteer.

Essentially, the service we would offer is much like that of a helpline but with 2 fundamental differences:

1) It’s a 1-stop-shop for all counseling and advice
2) It’s delivered via the web, giving extra anonymity and therefore security for the user.

Also, it can deliver teh same level of service to disabled people (eg deaf people) as non-diabled people.

What is the COMPETITION?

The competition to the the Virtual Counseling and Advice Service falls into several groups.

1) Telephone helplines
2) Advice centres
3) NHS and other consellors, psychiatrists etc
4) Content-based advice websites
5) Web-based advice bulletin boards (note: these are mostly single issue)

VCAS has a 2 unique selling points over options 1, 2 and 3.

1) It’s a 1-stop-shop for advice and counseling

2) It feels (and is) anonymous, so people who don’t feel able to speak to a “real” person (in person or on the phone) can speak to a “virtual advisor” or “virtual counsellor”. Although they’re still a real person, the perception is different due to the added anonymity the web offers.

VCAS also differs from 4 and 5 in that it offers advice or counseling from trained volunteers, delivered though the web. By contrast, 4 can only answer general questions – it can’t deal with specifics – and 5 does not offer trained volunteers – but instead offers advice from anybody who chooses to post (essentially they’re web-based self help groups with not screening to see who’s joined).

What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?

Technical
From a technical point of view this is a (fairly) easy site to build.

There would need to be a small content-managed editorial side to the site and an instant messenger type system.

If successful the site would be fairly well trafficked – so the infrastructure needs to be robust and scaleable.

Personnel
The biggest hurdle to this project is the volunteer advisors and counsellors. The site will be (fairly) easy to build, but without volunteers to man it, it means nothing.

There are two options to handle this:

1) recruit volunteers ourselves

2) link with other help organizations to provide a web based service for them

Option 1 is clearly very ambitious and would not be “low or zero cost” to scale.

Option 2, however seems viable and has several positive features.

Essentially VCAS would be providing a 1-stop-shop portal for other voluntary advice and counseling services such as:

- The Samaritans
- Child-line
- Citizen’s Advice Bureau

etc.

A proportion of the people that man their help-lines would be able to man new ” virtual” help-lines instead.

Essentially we’d be helping existing advice lines to deliver their service in a different way.

This is the key to providing the Virtual Counseling and Advice Service at low or zero cost scalebility.

All you would need to do is provide a web-based system advisors and counsellors could log into and provide advice through.

Promotion
For the site to work it needs peopel to visit it – and therefore needs to be marketed – both online and offline. A clever and cost effective marketing strategy would need to be developed.

There are plenty of opportunities for free exposure via PR (news stories with several angles- e.g. technology, web, disability, charity, mental health, teens etc)

Also, of we were able to link with other charities to provide the volunteers we could piggyback off their adverting budgets – ie get them to advertise the service.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 1:38am and is filed under Proposals 2006. Follow responses to this entry (RSS2 feed). Both comments and pings are currently closed.