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"Live Chat" Clients at Kids Help Phone: Individual Characteristics and Problem Topics
1Department of Psychology, York University and Department of Counselling Services, Kids Help Phone/Jeunesse J'écoute, Toronto, Ontario.
Objective:
Young people in Canada prefer to use the Internet over face-to-face contact when seeking help for problems of daily living and mental health problems. Kids Help Phone (KHP) provides on-demand, anonymous help to young people via telephone and Live Chat technologies.
Methods:
Two hundred thirty-two phone clients and 230 Live Chat clients responded to a questionnaire at this otherwise anonymous service, providing previously inaccessible data about their individual characteristics and characterizations of the problems for which they sought help.
Results:
There was a larger proportion of weighty problems (mental health and suicide) among chatters than callers. There were also more non-heterosexual youth, and those who identified as Asian and Black African or Caribbean, using Live Chat than phone.
Conclusions:
Implications for training Live Chat counsellors to respond effectively to chatters are discussed.
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