TEXT COUNSELLING BY PROFESSIONALS

After being called out to a critical incident where a young man had taken his life, Dervla Loughnane was inspired to use her 17 years of psychological expertise to create Virtual Psychologist. By offering mental health services via text message, Virtual Psychologist’ seeks to remove barriers that prevent people from seeking traditional counselling – such as the fear of talking about issues face-to-face or over the phone. 

Dervla, said, “I am passionate about breaking down the traditional barriers that may prevent those who require mental health assistance from seeking it out.

We started out with a small grant from the Lions Club (Charity) in Castlehill, with a specific focus on helping Australian farmers, then we took the concept to the corporate world where it is surviving within the Employee Assistance Program space. However our Big Hairy Audacious Goal  is to make it available to the public as a social enterprise. I want to ensure that everyone has the right to access mental health services via Text message because sometimes phone or face to face is just too confrontational, inconvenient, embarrassing, uncomfortable, judgemental or over whelming.

As someone who relies heavily on mobile technology to deliver our service,  Optus has kindly provided an amazing $10 000 to support some of the costs of the development of our technology. This assistance means that  we may be able to deliver our service to more people in need. However we are a long way off our goal of $35 000 and need your help to continue to build the platform so we can deliver more services to more people. 

Virtual Psychologist trained staff are qualified to assist with issues such as anxiety, depression, suicide, alcohol and drugs, domestic violence, grief and loss, relationship breakdowns, anger, parenting, financial worries and family conflict.

This service is really beneficial for teenagers who prefer texting rather than voice conversations. Furthermore in our customer validation testing we have had feedback from people in call centres, school classrooms and open plan offices who stated they couldn't speak for fear of being overheard. Mothers with new born babies who couldn't leave the house, hospital bound patients who were confined to their beds, the hearing impaired, the highly anxious or depressed person who just couldn't leave the house, to the people who were just so emotional they couldn't talk, this service is for all of you. 

We need your help to turn this service into a reality. Any dollar that you can spare may save a life or change a life, it could be yours.

If you can't afford to help us with money then please just share this crowd funding link with as many people as you can and like us on Facebook and Instagram. Together we can spread the word!

The funds will be used to develop an IT platform that will allow our trained professionals the ability to access the platform from anywhere within the country (and one day globally) and provide support night or day to those in need. Furthermore this platform will track workforce requirements and statistical data needed to maintain the service and allow for allocation of correct resources. It will be a totally interactive platform that will allow my trained staff the ability to liaise with clients in real time and send current resources directly through to a clients mobile phone for reference when required. The platform will be built to support a number of inbound numbers and hopefully, as we expand, each area/region/country will be assigned their own easy to remember local number.

Moving forward we hope to use our experience to continue to improve the training and development of our staff and ensure we deliver a quality service to our clients. 

We face many challenges!!

As a psychologist technology is not one of my strengths! So working with industry experts requires a lot of time and money to get this platform up and running. Security, clinical governance and professional training of the IT platform will require considerable time, effort and money. 

Ensuring that we get a platform that can assist us to deliver a good service, in a timely fashion, with access to the latest resources, in an innovative way, direct to clients mobile phones via our qualfied staff is challenging!

The main question I get asked is; "Can you really deliver a quality psychological service via TEXT?". The answer is absolutely yes! In fact from my experience (and that of my team) we find that people get to the point quicker, are more open with their answers, will tell us things over text that they would never say to us in a face to face or  phone situation. From a client perspective they tell us that they feel like they can slow down their thought process and don't feel under pressure to respond in the same way they would if they were on the phone or face to face. Furthermore they report that the  use of emojis helps to express themselves when they are not good with words. They report that the very act of texting is like journaling and is therapeutic in itself. Clients also state that having the whole conversation on their phone allows them to reflect back on what was said and refer to suggestions and resources when required. They reported the whole process was convenient, non confrontational, effective and therapeutic. 

Spreading the word about what we are doing is very challenging in a society where there is so much stigma about mental health. 

However with your help I believe we can do it!! So roll up your sleeves, empty your pockets and help Virtual Psychologist save lives and touch the hearts of those people who are struggling with life.

If you can't afford to help us with money then please just share this link with as many people as you can.