OcCo – On Line Counselling Client Outcomes

Beattie DC¹*, Cunningham S¹ and Zelenko O¹

1. CIRAC, QUT, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

The Australia Research Council has funded a long term project creating communication content for health service provision on the Net. As a cross University collaboration between interactive design, software programmers and content creators, the team created the interface and navigation within the parameters of considerable ‘duty of care’ provisions in the delivery of online counselling to a core demographic of adolescents.

In Stage Two, the project team have created a dynamic drawing space for clients less inclined to use text to communicate (a growing demographic). The interactive visual icons were designed with regard to the ethical principles of online counselling. These principles, integral to the design, were taken into consideration in the choice of the visual icons after intensive research and consultation with webcounsellors at the head office of a national service provider. The other key feature in the design has been the storage of the exchange between the counsellor and the client for the length of the session, as a tool for the counsellors’ use in leading to a closing of the exchange. Abrupt conclusions were one of the concerns identified in the evaluation of Stage One.
This research is a case-study in how new technologies, managed creatively, can engage communities seeking health outcomes.