Are There More Opportunities for Receiving Help in Online School Counseling?
As most people are aware, this past year has been tough on both students and employees within the education system due to the effects of the pandemic. Some of the effects, both positive and negative, have been addressed regarding the switch to offering school counseling online. For many, school counselors were unprepared for this abrupt change and it has taken awhile to assess whether or not it works or if their services are used more in an in person format.
As this has been a new topic of discussion for a lot of people due to recent events, some have been thinking about the benefits of moving school counseling online far before the pandemic. Through personal experiences and research, I believe that there are endless opportunities by providing counseling services to students in an virtual setting. I would propose that the most efficient way to maximize school counseling services would be to offer students the option to receive help both face-to-face or virtually, whichever is most convenient and comfortable.
An article titled “Online counseling in secondary schools: would students seek help by this medium?”, the authors point out reasons why many students do not take advantage of school counseling resources. They brought up important psychological and environmental differences between students such as age, gender, social norms, fear of gossip or embarrassment, privacy, mental health issues, etc. that all paly into a person choosing to seek help. As a psychology major, I understand how significant a lot of these factors are as to why people of any age or situation may not reach out for assistance. Not every student is comfortable talking to someone about their struggles or asking for guidance in person. Especially in todays world where technology is such a huge part of children's lives, students may be more comfortable with the privacy that a virtual setting offers.
The authors performed a research study on students and whether or not they would be likely to use online counseling services if they were made available. They took a sample of students and gave them a survey and compared the results based on factors such as age, gender, grade level, etc. They found that there was “a cumulative percentage of 80 % of females and over 84 % of males indicted that they either might or would be likely to use online counselling if made available.”
These results show how important it is to offer a variety of access to school counseling services. If there are even a small number of students struggling that are afraid or struggle to connect with a counselor face-to-face, then providing online counseling would allow for a larger percentage of young people to receive the help that they need throughout school.
Reference found on the University at Buffalo Database:
Glasheen, K., Shochet, I., & Campbell, M. (2016). Online counselling in secondary schools: would students seek help by this medium? British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 44(1), 108–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2015.1017805
