[Air-L] Research on online counseling in social services?

["Minna Strömberg-Jakka"]

Hi everyone,

I am a Ph.D.-student in social work at the university of Turku, Finland, and am preparing my dissertation thesis on social assistance and its current problems in Finland. Concerning the internet, one of my research problems is internet-based counseling in social services since 3 cities in northern Finland (Lapland) have started such a service in co-operation with one of the centres of excellence on social welfare of northern Finland (Poske). 

The service itself is about that users (clients of social services) log on using encrypted connection to the service using their netbank access codes. A respondent group consisted of social workers and other professionals working at the social office prepare a response to the client who receives an announcement of the response either to his e-mail or cell phone. Then the client can read the response on a special “response account” produced by this online service. The client may present also additional questions through this service and the questioner (client) as well as the respondent (worker of social office) are able to send attachments with their questions/answers. The content of the service is varying a little bit in different cities; for ex. from daycare questions to social assistance or to the services of the handicapped and children and their families.

My actual research topic in the whole dissertation is equality/inequality, so, concerning this internet-based counseling the research questions are:
- how do the clients experience the internet-based counseling in social assistance compared with other forms of advising (in traditional written paperform or written internet form/phone counseling/personal counseling during time appointment/e-mail advice/possible short messages)
- will clients using online counseling in social assistance fall into inequal positions with each other, depending on the professional status of the person answering to their question
 - is there client selection in online counseling 
-are there differences between cities in giving online counseling in social assistance and what kind of differences

Now, I´m interested in all kind of research done in Europe or elsewhere that I could have use of in my dissertation thesis concerning online counseling in social services and for this reason am asking your opinions, ideas of information about such research.

As a research material, I´m using texts (clients´questions and workers´answers). In addition to that, I should somehow collect clients´experiences on the service. Since "the research permission" does not allow for me to get to know the real identities of the clients, I should somehow get an announcement or request to the mainpage of the service for the clients to participate into my research. I would also like to get ideas on this, how to collect users´opinions in the best way. 

Minna Strömberg-Jakka,
Researcher, Ph.D.-student in Social Work
Department of Social Policy
20014 University of Turku
Finland