Online Support Services Research Articles

COVID-19 Changes the Nature of Tele-Mental Health: A Scope Review

COVID-19 temporarily removed legal restrictions, institutional hurdles, organizational impediments, and technological barriers to telemental health implementations that allow mental health therapists to apply virtual meeting technologies to serve their patients. Therapists transitioned from an under-appreciated health sub-specialty small business model to essential caregiver status needing management and technological expertise to measure service quality and outcomes. A systematic literature review identified factors essential for mental health workers and organizations transitioning patient therapy models from face-to-face to online support services under pandemic restrictions. This study revealed that management, technology, health services, and legal issues represent four critical areas of e-health research during the pandemic restrictions. This study suggests that telehealth applications require alterations in both the training and skills of the providers and the need for effective management of the telehealth business as digital mental health platforms supplant traditional delivery channels. Post-pandemic telehealth applications should be a blended approach that combines the best experiences from traditional treatments and virtual ones based on the digital skills of patients and healthcare providers.

Protocol for the co-design of an online support service for adults with hearing loss.

Untreated hearing loss is reported to negatively impact on an individual's quality of life, affecting their psychological and physical health and placing them at greater risk of developing dementia. Despite this, hearing loss management is often delayed by up to a decade. This is likely due to difficulties in navigating the hearing care pathway, and the absence of a central, unbiased reference point for consumer-friendly hearing health information and resources. We intend to co-design an online support service for adults with hearing loss with the following aims: 1) to understand unmet needs and consumer barriers to accessing hearing health information, 2) to identify solutions to these unmet needs that can be developed into prototype ideas, 3) to incrementally build on iterations of a prototype until a usable online support service is developed and ready for real-life testing with end-users, and 4) to test and evaluate the usability, accessibility, and effectiveness of the prototype from the consumer's perspective, so that the prototype can be refined into the final product. This will be a mixed method study. Consumers will be involved in all stages of the design of the project following the Hasso Plattner model of design thinking. The qualitative component will involve sprints and semi-structured interviews to access the consumer perspective and understand unmet needs and challenges regarding the access of online hearing health information. For the quantitative component, an online survey will be administered prior to prototype testing as part of the remote usability study to collect self-efficacy and eHealth literacy outcome measures via validated questionnaires. Data collection will also be performed post-prototype testing for evaluation purposes. Finally, heuristic evaluation of the prototype will be conducted by an eLearning expert to help refine the prototype into the final product.

Online peer support for children with a family member experiencing mental health challenges: perspectives from children and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Objective This study aimed to investigate the benefits and difficulties with providing online peer support services for children with a family member experiencing mental health challenges. Method Using a qualitative descriptive design, the perspectives were gathered of Australian children and young people with a family member experiencing mental health challenges and had participated in online peer support activities during the COVID-19 restrictions of 2020 and 2021. Five age-differentiated focus groups were held with participants aged between 8 and 24 years (N = 32), and interviews were held with youth peer leaders (N = 3) and program facilitators (N = 6). Results This paper presents seven themes generated from the qualitative data. The themes captured the benefits of an online setting such as enabling greater accessibility, participation and comfort. Juxtaposed with this, themes also captured challenges such as the unease and risks of participating online, as well as the perspective that in-person activities facilitated stronger and quicker connections. Discussion It was concluded that a blended model of online and in-person support services is likely to be valuable for children with a family member experiencing mental health challenges to ensure accessibility and provide the capacity to meet the varied needs of this cohort.

A Qualitative Literature Search and Pilot Study of Online Support Groups for Patients With Dementia and Their Carers.

The ever-growing group of people living with dementia (PLWD) and their relatives face great challenges. The Covid 19 pandemic has once again placed a particular challenge on this vulnerable group. What started a decade earlier with telephone-based support groups experienced a real push during the pandemic in the form of video-based self-help services. The aim of this qualitative literature search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO with keywords related to online, support group, caregiver, and dementia was to collect the reported experiences by the end of 2022. Peer reviewed journal papers were included when published and written in English. After the joint decision of two reviewers, it was decided to only include studies that were published in Medline. The results of the literature search are compared with experiences of the participants in a presentation group that was transformed into an online group at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic via Zoom. In search yielded a total of 129 articles. 113 articles described different types of interventions, 30 of which had a randomized design. The qualitative literature search showed on the one hand a high interest in online support groups but on the other hand that the effectiveness and efficacy in randomized trials is much less clear. In addition, we investigated the assessments and experiences of the participants in a presentation group that was transformed into an online group at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic via Zoom. This study demonstrates that PLWD and carers on virtual group meetings can express significant emotive capacity and enhanced connectivity with one another despite a diagnosis of mild to moderate dementia. Further research on entry criteria, concerns about online support services in general and necessary support for use is essential to develop the time- and location-independent possibility of video-based online self-help into an important form of support for both PLWD and their caregivers as an additional support option independent of exceptional pandemic situations.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on International Students in a Public University in the United States: Academic and Non-academic Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially impacted higher education. The unexpected move to online learning and support services have created many challenges. International students, who often are unfamiliar with the culture and norms of American higher education, have been particularly disadvantaged. Analyzing data received through an online survey, researchers identified the top five academic and non-academic challenges faced by international students during the pandemic, and their use of support services to overcome challenges. The results inform college administrators, professors, and student services professionals on the experiences of international students during the pandemic, and offer suggestions for reviving and expanding campus academic and social support services.

Effects of Online Learning Support Services on University Students’ Learning Satisfaction under the Impact of COVID-19

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many university students have transitioned from face-to-face education in the classroom to online learning. Online learning support services (OLSS) have helped university students adapt to this new form of learning. However, the quality of OLSS may influence learning experiences and satisfaction with online learning. High-quality OLSS could improve the effectiveness of online learning and improve satisfaction rates, thus better meeting students’ education requirements. Therefore, it is of great value for us to explore the effects of OLSS on university students’ learning satisfaction. This study proposed three hypotheses to evaluate the effects of three dimensions of OLSS (cognitive support, emotional support, and management support) on the learning satisfaction of university students. Data were collected through a survey and were then analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). We found that cognitive, emotional, and management support services each had positive correlations with the learning satisfaction of university students. Overall, our results suggest that learning support services should focus on the cognitive, emotional, and management aspects of online learning, thereby meeting personalized learning needs, improving service quality, and promoting online learning.

'You're not going to give a monkey's chuff': exploring co-production in the design of services for women who have experienced sexual violence.

Aims:Co-production is an emerging field in public health practice. We aim to present evidence of what works well to support co-production and what can be improved based upon learning from our evaluation of a co-production project implemented by Rape Crisis England and Wales (RCEW). RCEW designed and delivered a national co-production project called Weaving the Web, to inform the development of an online support service for women who have experienced sexual violence.Methods:We qualitatively evaluated the RCEW co-production approach. The specific objectives of our evaluation were to assess the increased role and voice for women and girls in co-producing services and provide better quality of evidence for what works in empowering women and girls. The evaluation was conducted in two phases: Phase 1 was the observation of co-production events (n = 8), with findings from this used to develop an interview schedule for Phase 2, where semi-structured interviews (n = 26) were conducted with a range of stakeholders (staff, partners and service users).Results:Staff supporting the co-production project were highly committed to the work, investing time, money, and preparation, and having a good understanding of co-production. Service users were less familiar with the approach and felt alienated by some of the language used. Most service users described participation as empowering and, in some instances, important in their own recovery. They were keen to stay involved beyond the creation of the online resource.Conclusion:The data from our evaluation illustrate that co-production on a national level is challenging. While RCEW used values-based practice, and provided a supportive culture to underpin the co-production of their online service, transformative engagement and true participation were not achieved. Learning from this project is drawn out here to outline transferrable lessons for practitioners intending to use models of co-production in other public health settings.

Acceptability and feasibility of a messenger-based psychological chat counselling service for children and young adults (“krisenchat”): A cross-sectional study

BackgroundAdolescence represents a vulnerable period to experience personal crises or mental health problems. However, many concerns stay unnoticed due to the hesitance of young people to seek help and the unavailability and inaccessibility of appropriate help services. Contemporary interventions have been developed incorporating with target group specific needs and preferred modes of communication. krisenchat (German for “crisis chat”) is a German low-threshold chat-based psychosocial crisis counselling service that is available around-the-clock. Despite the growing number of online support services, there is a dearth of research regarding the acceptability, usability, and feasibility. MethodsThe present cross-sectional study analyzed retrospective anonymous data on sociodemographic variables, utilization behavior, and user satisfaction of all krisenchat users between May 2020 and July 2021. Predictors of user satisfaction were identified using exploratory multiple regression analysis. Subgroup analyses were conducted using chi-square-tests to identify differences in user satisfaction. ResultsData of N = 6962 users was included in the analysis. More than 50% of those reported not having contacted the professional health care system before. The mean user of krisenchat was 17 years old (M = 16.6, SD = 3.5), female (female: 83.4%, male: 14.7%, diverse: 1.8%), and first approached the service at 4 PM (M = 4:03 PM, SD = 5:44 h). More than 60% of the users contacted the service between 4 PM and 12 AM, 10% even between 12 AM and 8 AM. The most frequent chat topics were concerns regarding psychiatric symptoms (60.1%), psychosocial (34.0%) or emotional distress (30.2%). The majority of the users (64.7%) reported high levels of satisfaction and 88.3% a high likelihood (60% or more) of recommending krisenchat to others. Also, the results indicate that the number of messages and their respective length differed between users and counsellors, with users writing several, but shorter messages and counsellors replying with fewer, but longer messages. ConclusionThe results of the present study imply a high acceptability and feasibility of krisenchat. Overall, there is a high need for a 24/7 messenger-based chat counselling service in crises for children and young adults. Currently, there is no other online service for youth that is available after 7 PM or at weekends, which indicates the great importance of krisenchat and its function to bridge a current gap in the mental health care system. A need for further research emerges e.g., for subgroup differences regarding utilization patterns and also for further insights regarding help-seeking behavior via social media in youth. Study registrationDRKS00026671.

‘When I need them, I call them and they will be there for me’. Experiences of independently living people with intellectual disabilities with 24/7 available online support

eHealth applications are increasingly being used in services for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). DigiContact is an online support service that uses videoconferencing techniques to enable people with ID to contact a team of specially trained support workers 24/7. In this qualitative and participatory study we aimed to explore the experiences of independently living people with ID with what it is like to be supported online. Five online support users were each interviewed twice and the transcripts were analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutic method. Choice and control played a central role in their shared experiences, as well as the relationship with online support staff. The results indicate that the suitability of online support depends on the needs, capabilities and preferences of each individual support user. This underlines the importance of a personalised approach to the planning and delivery of online support. Points of interest In this research we interviewed five persons from the Netherlands about what it is like for them to be supported by the online service DigiContact. They felt that DigiContact helped them to have access to sufficient professional support. Without DigiContact this would have been impossible, because of a reorganisation of the national long-term care system and cuts in care budgets. They also felt that DigiContact gave them control over their support and stimulated them to take on an active role towards solving their problems. Online support felt relatively impersonal, because they had contacts with different support workers. We conclude that online support seems not to be equally suitable for everybody. Whether online support is suitable, and in what form, depends on someone’s personal needs, wishes and preferences in support. Service organisations should look carefully at each individual person when planning the use of online support.

Uptake of Proactively Offered Online and Telephone Support Services Targeting Multiple Health Risk Behaviors Among Vocational Education Students: Process Evaluation of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundA high proportion of vocational education students smoke tobacco, have inadequate nutrition (ie, low fruit and vegetable intake), drink alcohol at risky levels, or are physically inactive. The extent to which vocational education students will sign up for proactively offered online and telephone support services for multiple health risk behaviors is unknown.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to examine the uptake of proactively offered online and telephone support services for smoking, nutrition, alcohol consumption, and physical activity risk behaviors, individually and in combination, among vocational education students in the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) setting. The characteristics associated with the uptake of online or telephone services for smoking, nutrition, alcohol consumption, and physical activity risk behaviors were also examined.MethodsVocational education students enrolled in a TAFE class in New South Wales, Australia, which ran for 6 months or more, were recruited to participate in a cluster randomized controlled trial from May 2018 to May 2019. In the intervention arm, participants who did not meet the Australian health guidelines for each of the smoking, nutrition, alcohol consumption, and physical activity risk behaviors were provided electronic feedback and proactively offered online and telephone support services. Uptake of support was measured by whether participants signed up for the online and telephone services they were offered.ResultsVocational education students (N=551; mean age 25.7 years, SD 11.1; 310/551, 56.3% male) were recruited into the intervention arm. Uptake of the proactive offer of either online or telephone services was 14.5% (59/406) for fruit and vegetables, 12.7% (29/228) for physical activity, 6.8% (13/191) for smoking, and 5.5% (18/327) for alcohol use. Uptake of any online or telephone service for at least two health behaviors was 5.8% (22/377). Participants who were employed (odds ratio [OR] 0.10, 95% CI 0.01-0.72) and reported not being anxious (OR 0.11, 95% CI 0.02-0.71) had smaller odds of signing up for online or telephone services for smoking, whereas participants who reported not being depressed had greater odds (OR 10.25, 95% CI 1.30-80.67). Participants who intended to change their physical activity in the next 30 days had greater odds (OR 4.01, 95% CI 1.33-12.07) of signing up for online or telephone services for physical activity. Employed participants had smaller odds (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.06-0.56) of signing up for support services for at least two behaviors.ConclusionsAlthough the uptake of proactively offered online and telephone support services is low, these rates appear to be higher than the self-initiated use of some of these services in the general population. Scaling up the proactive offer of online and telephone services may produce beneficial health outcomes.Trial RegistrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12618000723280; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=375001.

A Statewide Study of Perceptions of Directors on the Availability of Online Student Support Services at Postsecondary Institutions

As a state university system planned for growth in the availability of distance education degrees, the presidents and the provosts decided to include consideration for the availability of student support services. To ensure availability of student support services for online students, college and university systems in the state developed and implemented a self-reporting tool, the Online Student Support Scorecard to measure the availability of those services at both the college and the university levels. Although institutions were offering many of the services identified in the scorecard as essential, institutions were struggling to provide some of the services. Differences also were identified between the types of services available at the state college system compared with the university system.

Testing, testing, one, two, three: Service user evaluation of three standard measures of mental health and well‐being in an online counselling and support service for children and young people

AbstractAssessment measures have been widely adopted into mental health settings incorporating idiographic (personalised) and nomothetic (standardised) approaches. Online mental health support services have developed significantly, but with very little testing of these measures. This study assesses the relative merits of acceptability, applicability and appropriateness of assessment measures online for children and young people. Acceptability was determined by whether users elected to complete the measure, applicability by whether they understood the questions, and appropriateness by their experience of completing the measure. Three measures, the Short Warwick‐Edinburgh Emotional and Mental Well‐Being Scale (SWEMWBS), the Young Person's Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (YP‐CORE) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), were randomly offered to 7,235 new registrations to assess relative acceptability of the measures, and two follow‐up questions were asked to assess applicability and appropriateness. The chi‐square tests of independence were calculated to compare response rates for each measure, followed by post hoc pairwise comparisons and effect size calculations. There was a high level of acceptability of the measures, with statistically significant differences between the less‐accepted SDQ and more‐accepted SWEMWBS. For applicability, the SWEMWBS was less understood and relatable than the other assessment measures. All the measures demonstrated a tolerable appropriateness. All differences were indicated at a small effect size. These findings support the acceptability, applicability and appropriateness of the use of assessment measures in an online setting. The SWEMWBS demonstrated surprisingly low applicability against the more clinical measures, suggesting further investigation into how young people ascribe meaning to the measures, and their motivations for completing them.

Online counselling and goal achievement: Exploring meaningful change and the types of goals progressed by young people

AbstractBackgroundYoung people are increasingly looking towards the internet for mental health support. There has been little research on the impact of online counselling, as captured in routine outcome measures. This research aims to explore an online counselling service, using goal‐based data.Methods‘Meaningful change’ drawing on the principles of the Reliable Change Index, t tests and logistic regression were applied to administration data (n = 4,218) to assess goal progress, and associations between service contact, goal type and meaningful change.Results55.6% of young people reported meaningful goal improvement. Those who meaningfully improved spent significantly more time engaged than those who did not. Goal types most likely to meaningfully improve were ‘getting professional help’ and ‘self‐help–self‐care’.ConclusionsMost young people made significant movement towards their collaboratively agreed goals, which is a good indication that the service is helping to address important areas of change. The findings, linked to earlier research, may indicate that those who report improvements in goals may engage with services more. The high proportion of ‘getting help’ goals may be attributable to the online setting, which young people may use as a first point of contact for help seeking, to gather information to access further support. With the increased uptake of online support services associated with the current global pandemic, future research should consider the present findings as a baseline of goal progress and service utilisation.

The use of online support by people with intellectual disabilities living independently during COVID-19.

BackgroundDuring the COVID‐19 outbreak, service providers in the Netherlands had to switch towards providing remote support for people with intellectual disabilities living independently. This study aims to provide insight into the use of online support during the outbreak.MethodsWe analysed quantitative data on planned and unplanned contacts between the online support service DigiContact and its service users.ResultsThe results indicate that the COVID‐19 outbreak and the related containment measures had a strong impact on online support use, specifically on the unplanned use of online support.ConclusionOffering online support as a standard component of services for independently living people with intellectual disability enables service providers to be flexible and responsive towards fluctuations in both support needs and onsite support availability during a social crisis such as COVID‐19.

The Psychological Impact of Epidemic and Pandemic Outbreaks on Healthcare Workers: Rapid Review of the Evidence.

Purpose of ReviewWe aim to provide quantitative evidence on the psychological impact of epidemic/pandemic outbreaks (i.e., SARS, MERS, COVID-19, ebola, and influenza A) on healthcare workers (HCWs).Recent FindingsForty-four studies are included in this review. Between 11 and 73.4% of HCWs, mainly including physicians, nurses, and auxiliary staff, reported post-traumatic stress symptoms during outbreaks, with symptoms lasting after 1–3 years in 10–40%. Depressive symptoms are reported in 27.5–50.7%, insomnia symptoms in 34–36.1%, and severe anxiety symptoms in 45%. General psychiatric symptoms during outbreaks have a range comprised between 17.3 and 75.3%; high levels of stress related to working are reported in 18.1 to 80.1%. Several individual and work-related features can be considered risk or protective factors, such as personality characteristics, the level of exposure to affected patients, and organizational support.SummaryEmpirical evidence underlines the need to address the detrimental effects of epidemic/pandemic outbreaks on HCWs’ mental health. Recommendations should include the assessment and promotion of coping strategies and resilience, special attention to frontline HCWs, provision of adequate protective supplies, and organization of online support services.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11920-020-01166-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Usefulness of Offering 24/7 Online Support Within a Wider Mix of Professional Services for People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Living Independently: A Qualitative, Multiple Case Study

Abstract Service organizations for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) increasingly use telecare applications to improve their services. This study explored the usefulness of offering the 24/7 online support service DigiContact within a broader mix of professional services for people with IDD living independently. We employed a qualitative multiple case study, in which the cases of nine online support users were reconstructed through semistructured interviews with both support users and their case workers. Thematic analysis showed that online support was used as an addition to regular onsite support to enable a more tailor-made delivery of professional supports. Online support can be valuable for its users by increasing the accessibility of professional support and creating opportunities for more self-direction in support.

“Who Are Our Support Networks?” A Qualitative Study of Informal Support for Carers

There is little information about the types of social support and content of assistance for informal carers. This article aims to fill this knowledge gap by studying 37 informal carers in a region of the UK. It was found that adult children were the main source of support for older carers regardless of ethnic backgrounds, minority ethnic carers supported their husband to fulfill traditional caring duties by taking care of mother-in-law in the same household. Young carers received support mainly from uncles and aunts to look after sick parents while adult carers obtained information and peer support from the internet. Surprisingly, support from neighbors was limited. Additionally, social support for carers was undermined by the stigmatization of drug and alcohol misuse and mental illness. It is proposed that different types of online support services and appropriate educational programs need to be offered to carers to set up self-help groups and tackle stigmatization associated with health problems. It is suggested that future studies can use a large representative sample to give a comprehensive picture on the contents of informal support for different types of caregivers and the impact of social support on helping informal carers to fulfill their duties.

CompSupport: A series of unfortunate events

CompSupport Inc. was a leader of online support services for personal computers and devices. After a brief period operating in a B2C channel, the company shifted and refined its focus to two primary customer segments: Internet service providers and corporate accounts. CompSupport’s key mandate was to improve their customer’s helpdesk operations through outsourcing in order to achieve two goals: cost reduction and improved customer service. In May 2017, the lack of liquidity meant that the company would be unable to make its next pay period without an additional injection of funds. The company arrived at a crossroads, and a decision had to be made. The alternatives consisted of two buyout options and a merger opportunity. This case study evaluates CompSupport’s state at the time of the decision, and highlights the events that took place prior to the decision period that may have contributed to the company’s problems.

An Exploratory Study of the Support Needs in 24/7 Online Support for People With Mild Intellectual Disabilities

AbstractService organizations for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) increasingly look for technological applications to improve their services. DigiContact is an online support service developed by Philadelphia Care Foundation in the Netherlands which enables independently living people with ID to contact specially trained support workers 24/7. The purpose of this study was to explore the support needs for which people with ID use online support. We first conducted interviews with 21 individuals with ID who use the online support service. Transcriptions of the interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Second, online support workers registered items regarding the support needs when in contact with support users. These data were analyzed to assess which and how often the support needs were present. Online support is used for a broad variety of issues. Four themes emerged during analysis of the interviews: mental health, social contacts (conflicts with others as well as lack of contacts), practical issues, and physical health. Analysis of the support workers' data showed that making a connection with someone and talking about worries and stress are the two most frequent support needs. Most support needs did not differ across the time of day or across the week. The results suggest that 24/7 online support is a useful way of providing services to independently living people with ID. Unlimited access to support has multiple advantages. It appears to have a signaling and a preventive function with regard to emotional and behavioral problems.

Application of Expanded Technology Acceptance Model for Enhancing the HRIS Usage in SMEs

Rapid developments and change have culminated new applications of information technologies. This trend is reflected in the plethora of innovative studies. Literature indicates that small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) perceive human resources information systems (HRIS) as complicated and time consuming, resulting in resistance from both users and employees. The purpose of this article is to identify necessary acceptance conditions for a successful implementation of the HRIS software within SMEs in Turkey. SMEs compose 99% of all companies in Turkey. Fierce rivalry within sectors gives rise to increased technology use to gain a competitive advantage. This study contributes to an efficient implementation of widely used HRIS in SMEs and offers solutions for implementation failures, including user resistance and idle system problems. This study attempts to apply the technology acceptance model to 112 SMEs that implement HRIS exclusively with all the submodules. This research analyzes success factors for an effective HRIS implementation by testing the latest integrated model of expanded technology acceptance. It concludes that there is a positive and robust correlation between acceptance and use of technology variables and user satisfaction. The results of this study are useful not only for the managers but also for the manufacturers, technical support, online support, and aftersales services as they are advised to develop strategies for user satisfaction.