JSWEC Conference Thursday 7th July Skills and knowledge for Virtual practice or Social Workers talki

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JSWEC Conference Thursday 7th JulySkills and
knowledge for Virtual practiceorSocial Workers
talking onlinepresented by Julia Waldman,
SWAPand Ineke Houtenbous, NSPCC, There4me
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Aims and style of session

• To explore how computer mediated communication is
  changing social work
• To introduce the work of NSPCCs There4me and
  some of the findings of its first 2 years
  evaluation
• To discuss the implications of social work going
  online for education and training of social
  workers what skills and knowledge are
  transferable, what new ones are required
• Experimental we are all learning today
• Hands on trying out what its like communicating
  with service users online
• Groupwork

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Background about There4me

• In December 2001 the NSPCC launched the UKs
  first online child protection support service
  called There4me.com, including the provision of
  real time online discussion with adult advisers
• Service uses qualified and trainee social work
  staff
• Provides information, advice and support to 12-16
  year olds anonymously via a website
• Places protection of users and content
  authenticity first

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Evaluation background

• An independent 2-year evaluation of the service
  was completed in summer 2004.
• The evaluation provided a timely opportunity to
  explore the ways in which new technologies offer
  opportunities for the development of professional
  practice with vulnerable young people who might
  not access other forms of community and statutory
  services. New technologies require researchers
  and practitioners to respond to new questions
  related to e-practice, e-methods and ethics .
• Three key methods were adopted
• Descriptive statistical analysis of There4me
  numerical monitoring data from web and system
  databases
• Content analysis of text-based material generated
  within the site on the Message Board and from
  1-2-1 archives
• Online consultation with young people using
  There4me.com via questionnaires and an open text
  format proforma

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Internet use in the UK

• Between 1998 and 2004 the proportion of
  households in the UK with internet access rose
  from 9 to 52 (source National Statistics online
  8/6/05)
• levels of internet access still relate very
  strongly to income and region (source ONS, Family
  Expenditure Survey, 2000)
• the presence of children in the household
  significantly boosts the likelihood of internet
  access (sic)
• 75 of users who gave feedback (n709) said they
  were accessing the site from a pc at home and the
  majority of these were alone in a room when
  doing so.

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1-2-1 the heart of the service

• Synchronous chat facility anonymous
• show peak times of day for 1-2-1 use as 4-5 p.m.
  followed by 8-9 p.m
• From the sample year, the most used, but in many
  ways least specific, category was Information.
  The next highest grouping was Relationships (both
  peer and family), which accounted for 20 of
  contacts. The next highest grouping was for Abuse
  (sexual, physical, emotional and neglect) at
  19.5 with sexual abuse being particularly high
  at 12.8. These ratios are similar to the queries
  in the Message Board. Comparisons across other
  categories are less easy as many are coded
  differently to Ask Sam and Message Board.
  Bullying and Emotional problems are both
  relatively high. The figure for Self-harm as a
  single topic is again quite high (7.4 of all
  contacts).
• Evaluation showed average conversation 31 minutes
  
• Median time between responses 55 seconds (range
  18 to 240 seconds)
• Small group of very heavy users

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Quotes from young people about using computer
service

• I think there4me has got rid of some of my
  stresses and strains. If anything ever goes wrong
  I use the forum to talk to other people my age.
• I think talking to a computer is a lot easier
  than talking to a person. I don't know why. I
  think it might be the feeling that a computer
  won't g off and skit you behind your back.
• I know the advisers won't but if I talk to
  friends they might. I could talk to an adviser
  but they don't know me, and are not friends with
  me, but I use my computer a lot, so in some ways
  it is my friend.
• When I have talked to advisers they have helped
  me as best they can. Sometimes, they have solved
  my problem, other times they haven't but have
  give me knowledge about where to go, or who to
  talk to.

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Issues for Advisers doing 1-2-1

• Intensity
• Disclosure
• Lack of visual/aural clues

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Exercise have a go at being an online Adviser

• For 10 minutes Half the group will be advisers
  and half will be service users who will be
  given case studies/problems to ask advisers about
• Then 10 minutes in swapped roles
• We will spend plenty of time making sure you feel
  comfortable with the task and will be around to
  give help

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Group discussion

• Part 1 personal reflections
• Discuss what it felt like to be an adviser and
  user
• What issues arose
• Part 2 wider implications
• What advantages and disadvantages do you think
  computer-mediated communication (cmc) has for
• Social workers
• Users?
• What skills and knowledge do you think sw need to
  have to use CMC?
• How should they learn these?