Posted April 2006 Counselling goes online Education Views, April 21 2006
		As many as one in five Australian children have a significant mental health problem, but only one in four of these will receive professional help, says Kevin Glasheen, Guidance Counsellor at Coombabah State High School. "When you have a thousand student s in a school, one in five is a lot of kids," Mr Glasheen said. "Students suffer from anxiety, depression and more serious problems, but they often perceive barriers in their way to accessing guidance and help. Something as simple as the location of the guidance office, if it's near Admin, for example, might make a student unwilling to go to the office." Other barriers, especially for boys, were communication issues, a hesitancy to talk about problems, and a fear of being seen as "weak". It was this student reluctance to seek face-to-face assistance that prompted Mr Glasheen to look for alternative ways for students to access help. He found the answer online. "Online is where lots of young people virtually live, so I felt we should be using that," he said.

Coombabah was successful in being accepted as one of 17 demonstration schools for the MindMatters Plus initiative, which assists in building a school's capacity to provide support and pathways to care for students with high support needs in the area of mental health.

Through the secure environment of a Learning Place project room, a Guidance Chat Room was set up. Students were able to log on and chat online with a guidance counsellor. An option for students was using comic chat, creating a cartoon character to present concerns and problems for them. "The anonymity of being online, being one step removed, seems to enable some students to feel braver and safer and more able to discuss their concerns," Mr Glasheen said. "It's been especially successful with some physically impaired students."

Face-to-face counselling often followed online contact, with students receiving assistance with personal and educational problems.

Mr Glasheen said students could access the chat room from school or home. "While there haven't been huge numbers using the chat room, I believe it's been crucial in assisting some students, especially boys, who were in need of personal help. And if it helps one person it's worth it."