The end of the call-centre era as online counselling prevails

Last year, NSPCCs 25-year-old ChildLine launched an online version of its call-centre service.

Children who wanted to get in touch about a range of serious issues could now write an email, send a text, or start a live web chat with a volunteer counsellor.

The launch proved incredibly popular, with 60% of ChildLine’s counselling now taking place online.

ChildLine has been supporting struggling children since 1986 and since then, has spread to 150 countries and helped 2.6 million children.

The charity deals with all issues from parental divorce to abuse, cyber bullying and suicide.

ChildLine has taken care to keep up with the rapidly developing technologies and methods of communication in order to always be available for children who need support.

The NSPCC is keen to invest its energy into developing links with technology experts Genseys and its implementation partner ProtCall One.

Sue Minto, head of ChildLine, said: “By developing our online service we can reach out to more of these very troubled children who are struggling to cope with complex problems that are blighting their lives, and may not have contacted us without this new service.”

Research shows that children are now three times more likely to discuss self-harm through online chat or email as opposed speaking on the telephone.

Many counsellors listed on our directory offer long-distance services, including telephone calls, video calls and email. To contact a counsellor, please follow the link to our search facility.

View and comment on the original Call Centre Clinic article. 

This entry was posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Abuse, Counselling, Young People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.