Students’ psychological web consulting: function and outcome evaluation

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper refers to a brief interaction with a mental health professional via written electronic communication. Web consulting services have proved popular, but there is controversy regarding the efficacy of such brief interventions to address problems and enable service users to access other forms of counselling. University students are accustomed to new technologies and often present difficulties suitable for simple intervention. Additionally, interventions of this type lead to the creation of a ‘database’ of students’ issues that can be used by future service users, alleviating the heavy workload of most services. Data from prior investigations are presented and ways to further investigate, validate and evaluate the function and outcome of web consulting in the context of students’ psychological counselling are discussed. Keywords: web consultingweb counsellingonline psychological student counselling in higher education