Super Busy Counselling Year for Cyberhus

CfDP – Centre for Digital Youth Care builds on the countless experiences from Cyberhus, which has been online counselling centre and meeting place for children and young people for six years.

Cyberhus has build a unique knowledge about how you via websites and social media meets and talks to children and young people about life’s ups and downs, and 2010 was certainly no exception. It was a very busy counselling year.

At the bottom of this page, we have gathered the key figures for 2010. Among other things, they show that the number of answers in the Q&As have almost doubled. The number of chat conversations have increased with 27 percent, and the number of contributions in `Fortæl din historie´ (Tell Your Story) have almost tripled compared to 2009. The number of volunteer counsellors in the chat and the Q&As increased to 50 in 2010, and in the chat counselling the actual counselling time was almost doubled from 2009 to 2010.

 

Growth Invites Reflection

There is reason to be pleased by the progress of especially our youth-to-adult communication. At the same time it is thought-provoking that so many children and young people need to visit us. It would be interesting to study if there is an increase in children and young people at risk in Denmark, if they generally use the web more, and more specifically, whether they have become more set on using the web to find help and guidance, also about the things that hurts.

We can note and be pleased with that the knowledge of Cyberhus has increased, and that the safe, anonymous, and competent environment, we have built for peer communication and for communication between young people and adult counsellors, makes more and more young people feel safe visiting and using us.

 

More Determined Users

The only area, in which we have experienced a decrease on cyberhus.dk, is in relation to the number of unique users in our rooms and workshops. In 2010, we had 36,972 unique visits in the rooms. If we look at the increase in contributions to debates, Q&As, and `Fortæl din historie´at precisely these places, it could indicate that our users have become more determined, so that they head directly for the Q&A or chat counselling, when entering cyberhus.dk, assesses Niels-Christian Bilenberg, Counselling Coordinator in Cyberhus.

And Cyberhus is generally well visited, in 2010 we had more than 180,000 visitors, spread on 451 towns.

 

When It Hurts Deep Down

A picture begins to emerge of, just as in 2009, topics such as eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, love, and sexual abuse are the most searched for on cyberhus.dk. Young people do not need to have problems to use cyberhus.dk, they can visit us just for fun – and they do – but is has become clear that, to many young people, Cyberhus has come to mean the place to go if you feel really bad. Our category `Når det gør ondt inderst inde´ (When It Hurts Deep Down) is the most frequented in debates, Q&As, and `Fortæl din historie´.

 

Lots of Positive Energy

Even though it is a growth providing food for thought, we can, on the basis of the figures for 2010, take a lot of positive energy with us into 2011. We have been confirmed in that we are doing a great job in relation to young people. We are no longer the `new ones´. We are really well visited, we are used actively, and we get lots of positive feedback, which we can build on in 2011, which already looks very exciting.

First milestone is that we have now established CfDP – Centre for Digital Youth Care, which will produce and communicate knowledge about social work in digital media. A knowledge which stems from our unique and extensive knowledge of the digital youth care field, built through six years with Cyberhus and four years with the Cyberskole.

 

Selections of Counselling Figures from 2010:

• The chat counselling: 1,987 conversations (increase of approx. 27 percent compared to 2009)
• Actual counselling time: 1,515,5 hours (increase of approx. 95 percent compared to 2009)
• Q&As: 1,660 answers (increase of approx. 82 percent compared to 2009)
• Unique visitors in the Q&As: 22,517
• Debates: 1,519 contributions
• Unique visitors in the debates: 34,400
• `Fortæl din historie´: 231 contributions (increase of approx. 178 percent compared to 2009)
• Unique visitors in `Fortæl din historie´: 8,019
• Unique visitors in rooms and workshops: 36,972
• Volunteer counsellors: 50

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