I.T Education

Therapy can often be stigmatized, and it can be difficult for many people to seek a therapist for their problems. This dilemma is particularly true if you take into account the accessibility of these services. There might not be a good therapist within your locality. Or if there is, you can’t seem to find the time to visit them.  

Thankfully, technology nowadays has made communicating a lot more convenient. You can access a whole host of services online, and mental health services are no exception. With telecounseling, you can attend your therapy sessions right in the comfort of your home. It eases many people into taking the first step towards their healing. 

What is Telecounseling?

Telecounseling is a mode of therapy that is delivered through technology. It makes it easier for many to communicate their concerns to a mental health professional. Telecounseling sessions may use devices such as:

• telephones
• smartphones
• computers
• tablets

Your therapist may use a digital platform to hold online one-on-one video conferences with you. In addition, they can ask you to download applications on your devices to perform valuations and exercises. They also provide you with utmost confidentiality and trust so that you can confide in them easily.

Who Is It For?

Telecounseling offers a wide range of services for those who need it. Therapists can provide speech therapy, mental health therapy, and occupational therapy. It provides better access, thereby bringing public health closer to the people. With the threat of the COVID-19 virus, it is a much safer option. You can stay at home and reach your therapist by phone.

Therapists may recommend telecounseling for you if it’s your first time. Being in a new environment can perhaps be stressful for some. Telecounseling can thus make it easier for people to open up as they are in the comforts of their own homes.

For those living in rural areas, telecounseling is also a great solution. Furthermore, this mode of therapy can help those with disabilities access mental health services. It reduces the cost and hassle of transportation. For those with multiple jobs, telecounseling offers a lot of flexibility as well.

How Telecounseling Works

Since the pandemic hit, many face-to-face services have transitioned to a digital platform. Classes, appointments, and even banking have all gone online. Nearly all our daily errands have a digital counterpart that makes them accessible for everyone. The same is true for public health services.

Telecounseling is very similar to a face-to-face appointment, as most therapy sessions do not require physical contact. Your therapist will talk to you about the issues that you struggle with and discuss possible treatment plans. 

Your telecounseling sessions can be a meeting with your therapist through a call or video at an agreed time. Through this call, you can interact one-on-one with your therapist just like you would at an in-person appointment.

It can also be an asynchronous session where you are free to interact with resources and materials provided to you by your therapist to fulfill your treatment plans. Your therapist may suggest some guided meditation videos or even a weekly assessment for you to accomplish. 

If this is your first appointment with a therapist, prepare questions or list your concerns. Remember, it’s okay to feel nervous. Just don’t let this stop you from being candid.

Benefits Of Telecounseling

Telecounseling can save you a lot of time and energy. The hours you spend in a commute can be allotted to help you prepare for your sessions. Thus, you can be more ready to share your thoughts and emotions. Online counseling can also reduce any delay in your care and reduces the stigma of going to therapy.

A big benefit to telecounseling is that you can message your therapist anytime about what you feel and what you’re going through. Previous in-person appointments don’t offer the same convenience. You usually have to wait until your next session to let your therapist know what you’re going through. So, it’s easy to forget what you meant to share if you don’t write them down. 

Most importantly, telecounseling doesn’t have any drawbacks when it comes to the quality of outcomes. Research suggests that telecounseling is just as effective as regular counseling. In many aspects, it’s just like an in-person therapy session. So, it’s best if you treat it as such. Prepare and plan for your appointment, make a schedule with your therapist, and be punctual. 

Some Barries To Telecounseling

Telecounseling may not benefit everyone. What may work for someone else may not work for you, and that’s perfectly fine. Your therapy should be tailor-fit to your needs. Here are some hurdles that could make telecounseling challenging for you. 

Little To No Privacy In Your Home

Many people may struggle to find privacy even in their own homes. Not every patient can afford to live independently, and some are too young to move out on their own. We all come from different households, and the distractions we encounter vary. 

Internet Connections And Technical Difficulties

You will need a reliable internet connection to communicate with your therapist effectively. Unfortunately, being connected online can be difficult for many, especially clients coming from low-income neighborhoods. 

Data Encryption And Privacy Issues

Most people are very concerned with their privacy, thus making them wary about sharing private information through insecure web applications. But keep in mind that therapists are obliged to treat these sessions with the utmost confidentiality. 

Communities At Risk

The digital divide has just further widened, with vulnerable sectors lacking online access. Studies show that online learning is difficult for the country’s most vulnerable students. A disproportionate amount of these children come from marginalized communities. This situation is unfortunate since technology is supposed to make everything more accessible. If education can’t be made available to students, it’s even harder to reach them with telecounseling.

Conclusion

Now, more than ever, we need access to prompt and professional mental health care. Teleconsulting is a step in the right direction. It provides access to people from different localities and abilities. As more and more people avail of this service, mental health counseling will become more destigmatized.  

This new mode of therapy may not be a good fit for everyone. After all, there are still some barriers that hinder people from availing of this service. Just try a few sessions to see if it suits your preferences and circumstances. Hopefully, this article has helped shed a little light on telecounseling and nudged you towards getting the help you need.

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic happened, the whole world seemed to have taken a halt. It forced each of us into isolation inside our houses to curb the spread of the infectious disease. Moreover, it has interrupted and modified our daily routines. And what’s worse is we need to cope with the dreading news of infections rising every day. 

Dealing with sudden changes can discernibly affect someone’s mental health. It has particularly affected children who had a shift with their usual school setup. They used to go to school to meet their classmates and interact with their mentors. Now, everyone is in home isolation. Currently, children use gadgets to learn and keep up with their studies.

Online Classes Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic

When the pandemic hit, most adults started working from home. Meanwhile, students shifted to online classes, which was a huge adjustment from their usual routine. These children faced inevitable changes in their environment. Amidst all the chaos, they need to learn and continue their education.

Apart from relying on online classes and technology, the traditional way of learning shifted. Currently, it has become more advanced, which is challenging for both students and academic institutions. Students of all ages are under a lot of pressure and stress due to these changes.

Internet connection or interruption sometimes comes as a hindrance. There are specific activities that are only accessible for a limited time. Moreover, they have limited means of asking their teachers. Unlike when in school, they can keep asking their teachers if they do not understand something. The thing about online classes is that it forces independent learning to some extent.

How students keep up with this new routine can be different for each, and the same goes for parents. While it may also come as an advantageous experience for others, it is a disadvantage for some. As the academic classes went on full swing for many students, their chances of going back to school seem a bit blurry. 

Everyone is holding their hopes high for the country-wide COVID-19 vaccine inoculation. The sight of the pandemic slowing down and the world healing seems too far from our grasp yet. At this point, going back to our normal lives feels like a mere dream or wishful thinking.

Factors That May Be Affecting Your Mental Health

Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, our movements and the places we can go to are minimal. We are as much as prisoners in our own homes, but for a practical reason. The times we are facing are not normal. It is valid to feel negative emotions as it is a human’s natural reaction to challenges.

Studies have found lower psychological well-being among the general public. Meanwhile, there are higher levels of anxiety and depression than the time before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The negative rush of emotions comes with many significant factors that you can look out for and consider. If you are a student continuing with your education, or just starting with the university, here are possible factors that may be affecting your mental health:

• • Life experiences during the coronavirus pandemic can play a big part in your mental health.
  • Isolation due to outbreaks can also affect your mental health. It may bring waves of worries and fear all at the same time.
  • Lack of face-to-face learning is also a big factor. It may affect your mental health as a student. This health crisis led to a shift in the traditional way of education.
  • Health issues can also affect your mental health, especially amid a global pandemic. This unfortunate time makes it harder for most people to seek treatment in a hospital.
  • Loneliness amid the COVID-19 pandemic is inevitable because it made it harder to be with people. The inability to share your struggles can affect your mental health.
  • The environment you’re residing in or dealing with plays a part in your mental well-being. Unhealthy experiences or memories in a particular environment make it more difficult. More so if you are trying to keep yourself sane.

Why Should You Seek Counseling?

Observe once things become more challenging to handle for your usual tolerance. Notice how school matters have been bothering you to the extent of having nothing done. If you notice that your situation is worsening, the best solution you have is to seek counseling.

A mental health counselor can conduct solo or group counseling sessions. They can also diagnose mental health conditions. However, they cannot prescribe medications.

If you’re facing mental health problems, here are five reasons why you should seek counseling:

• If You’re Overwhelmed With Stress And Anxiety

The ongoing pandemic can hinder you from performing to your full ability in your classes. Getting stressed or anxious is part of life. However, if it has been going on for months, it can be a matter of mental health concern. In case, try to observe for the following symptoms:

• Insomnia
• Restlessness
• Fatigue
• Difficulty to concentrate

If you are experiencing these kinds of symptoms, it is perhaps time to seek a counselor. They can best help you calm your high levels of stress and anxiety.

• Dealing With The Loneliness Burden

Feeling waves of loneliness amid such difficult times is not unusual. However, if it is consuming your mind and existence, it is best to seek help from an expert. Feelings of extreme sadness or guilt are something to get concerned about, as well. It can also present changes in your appetite or sleeping schedule which can cause problematic effects. 

• To Find A Safe Space Or Person To Speak About Your Issues With

If you’re dealing with mental health problems, it may not be easy to share them with anyone. A counselor will listen to your worries and provide you advice, which you can apply to your life.

• To Begin Your Recovery Process Early

Compartmentalizing and keeping all these negative feelings inside of you for a long time may take a toll, not just on your mental health. After some time, it might also affect physical health. The best thing to do is address these challenging experiences to seek the help of a counselor.

• To Regain A Good Quality Of Life

Having to deal with mental health problems hinders us from improving and growing. Sometimes, it also prevents us from doing things we need to do. Seeking counsel or therapy will help you regain control of your thoughts and your life.

The connection between technology and counseling may seem far-fetched. But with the flexibility and convenience of current techs, the counseling process is slowly becoming high-tech and modern.

Today, there are several ways technology could align with your counseling sessions. Here are some of the relevant ways your counselor can apply modern trends:

Tool For Collaboration

Technology provides faster and more reliable communication for counseling. It comes in different forms, such as email, chat rooms, online conferences, and online bulletin boards. Through these means, it enables clients and counselors to collaborate in decision-making.

Moreover, these platforms are also instrumental in sending instructions on how to proceed with the treatment. These methods allow an exchange of insights on how the counseling process can become more convenient. 

More Convenient Administrative Purposes

Technology can also complement certain administrative services. Nowadays, scheduling appointments with a professional counselor is possible through a convenient online form. Computer applications are also helpful with reports, documents, and letters about a patient’s progress. Some of the most commonly used are Word and Excel.

Meanwhile, reproduction and producing copies for documentation are made available by photocopy machines and printer devices.

Medium Of Informing Clients

Traditional counseling usually involves physical and face-to-face consultation. And most of the time, communication in this set-up happens only within sessions with a counselor.

Patients can initiate messaging and video calls to interact and communicate with their attending psychologists even beyond office hours.

These messaging applications make it easier for the counselor to check and assist their client whenever they need help. They may use these apps as platforms to update their clients on possible changes and departures in scheduling their counseling sessions. 

Holding Counseling Sessions Live

Due to the pandemic, the government had set strict measures to manage the communities. These policies aim to keep people from going out. But unfortunately, it also prevented some from having their regular visits with the psychologists.

There are good things for teleconferencing that may help people seek mental help even in their home’s comforts. Telecounseling is the more famous option in a non-traditional session for psychological support. But email and real-time chat are also viable options for patients.

People with disabilities that may prevent them from traveling independently may benefit from online counseling sessions. Usually, traditional counseling requires personal attendance. But because of the advancements in telecounseling has been made easier. It only requires a stable internet connection and a functioning device for teleconferencing.

Technology in telecounseling also gives clients a choice to remain anonymous during the length of treatment or session. It also accommodates those who might have difficulties with opening up about their condition.

Setting Up Support Groups

Technologies for online counseling are not exclusive to individual counseling. It offers a flexible option and allows multiple people to partake at the same time.

Group counseling sessions and focus group discussions are good examples of psychological activities that benefit from this technological modality. Holding these forums usually requires assistance and monitoring by a counselor or a range of other professionals.

Increasing Patient Interactions And Activities

Improving software and programs helped with launching various technological tools that may increase counseling productivity. These savvy tools can help psychologists create plans and strategies that they may use in your sessions. Your counselor can choose to present or inform you about the specifics of your condition using interactive resources. Some even use graphs and illustrations.

Besides, growing advancements in data processing may help your counselor personalize reports about your progress in a way that is convenient for you. Clinical assessment and patient interviews are now possible through an interactive online environment.

And, like several self-administered therapies based on the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) model available online, your counselor can provide you with additional activities in addition to the regular face-to-face sessions.

Supplemental Device For Self-Discovery

Some counselors are also exploring new strategies. For example, Facebook is becoming a staple for people. Some experts are studying how it can help support and assist the entire length of counseling.

Setting up and creating a profile in these sites may lead to better awareness of identity exploration. Providing support and reporting suicidal tendencies are also manageable through a function in Facebook comments. The website can recognize suicide-related comments in a post. Once it gets a notice, it sends an email to the user to encourage getting crisis support. 

Resource And Search Engine

The convenience of online search engines such as Google and Bing paves the way to better and more advanced counseling procedures. Before, most information only comes from community libraries. Today, it only takes an internet connection and a working device to search for anything under the sun.

With tons of information loaded in just one click, your counselor may derive more accurate ways to go about your situation in a shorter amount of time. He may also use online search tools to apply new and more updated strategies applied in counseling, which may benefit you in the long run.

Conclusion

Technology offers a wide range of help in conducting counseling sessions. Despite the benefits of using technology with psychological support, it also has its limitations.

Privacy may be overlooked when using technology while in a counseling session. There can be sites and applications that may steal pertinent information about you and your bank account.  So if you are acquiring telecounseling services, choose a provider which abides by the regulations set by HIPAA.

Fees in using technology during counseling are also a common limitation. Patients seeking e-therapy may require more data consumption, which may lead to more internet expenses. You might also need to buy a compatible device when using an online platform for psychological help.

Aside from that, recent technologies might not work for everybody. People tended to online and more modern interventions may have a hard time adjusting, especially if they do not use such technological modalities regularly.

When my husband and I were still family planning, we talked about which school to send our kids to, what neighborhood was ideal for their upbringing, etc. But what we only thought of discussing when our eldest child was already a year old was technology.

Here are a few techniques we tried to teach our young family members how to use technology smartly.

Limit Screen Time

The first thing we made sure to do was to limit the number of hours that the kids could spend in front of gadgets. We saw how they could not pull their children away from the iPad or smartphone through friends and family. If they tried, the little ones would throw a fit or the electronic device—whichever they thought of first.

When our kids were still not studying, they could only watch kids’ shows on TV for an hour in the morning. Once they entered pre-school, the screen time was reserved at school. The first time they got to use the computer was when they learned how to use one in second grade.

Did the children get upset about limited screen time? No. They couldn’t be upset with something they had known all their life. That’s the benefit of doing so before even giving them unlimited access to gadget just to make them stop whining.

Keep Them From Using Social Media Early

There’s a little controversy surrounding the fact that some parents made social media accounts for their kids. To be specific, my sister created a Facebook profile for her five-year-old daughter and uploaded her photos and some text posts as if she could do it all. When I asked why, my sister said that everyone’s kids had it anyway.

The problem I saw in this logic was that it could expose the children to social media earlier than necessary. Parents might let them use the accounts as soon as they learned how to type and post anything instead of teaching them what they can and cannot put online. One of the kids at my eldest daughter’s school had the same experience and unfortunately ended up posing provocatively in her images at ten years old.

The only quick fix that my husband and I could think of was to keep our little ones from using social media until they were ready. That would most likely be in the middle of their teenage years when they already had an idea about their real identity and won’t need to rely on others’ opinions to feel happy.

Inform Them About Cyberbullying And Why It’s Unacceptable

My son came home from school one day, looking upset. When I hugged him, he said that his best friend transferred to another school because he was getting cyberbullied. The said kid had been handling an Instagram account of his own since turning eight years old, and others started trolling his social media posts, to the extent that he could not take it anymore. Then, my son asked me, “What is cyberbullying, Mom?”

Considering my boy was old enough to understand the concept, I told him that cyberbullying was a form of bullying that ill-meaning folks did to harass or make fun of someone. I also mentioned that it’s unacceptable because it could make the latter too sad to function.

I knew that we raised our son well when he wiped his tears and said, “I promise never to bully anyone in any way, Mom.”

Block Adult Websites For Good Measure

I visited my kids’ friends’ houses over the years, and many of them had a desktop computer in the middle of the living room. It did not add to the space’s aesthetic appeal most of the time, but the parents said that it allowed them to monitor the websites that their children were opening. One of the older moms even said, “I made the mistake of giving my eldest child a laptop on his eighth birthday a few years ago. When I was getting his laundry, I found it open and saw that he was watching porn. Oh, the horror!”

Well, this method might work for some people. However, you were a kid once—you knew how sneaky a curious one could be. The moment you turn your back for at least five minutes, they could have open a website that they shouldn’t have known the name of in the first place. Hence, you must block adult sites for good measure.

Final Thoughts

If my husband was not as level-headed as he was, I might be among those parents who handed over my smartphone to my kids when they started having a meltdown. But with patience and compromise, we managed to discipline our children while teaching them the proper way of using technology.

Hopefully, the kids will not bonk their heads along the way and forget what we have taught them.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

The essence of higher education adjustments for COVID-19 centers on online learning and working. Progress tracking, advising systems, and other tech innovations to help students succeed will both be crucial to helping the students complete their courses and achieve their credentials.

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing many universities to suddenly and carefully embrace remote work and education and other activities that assist in containing the proliferation of the virus. In the past ten years, institutions have acknowledged the relevance of advising, degree planning, alerts, and other services to help students fulfill their academic goals efficiently and affordably. A variety of fresh applications and technologies to support the success of students are now accessible. Data from extensive studies reveal that most institutions, teachers, students, and staff are prepared to utilize these technologies amid the pandemic.

Utilizing Technology For Student Success

Core technological tools that help students succeed in higher education, including center management and advising case management systems that monitor students’ interactions. Other data technologies and practices aid in sharing, decision-making, and managing related to student success. There are also tech support tools that enable students to choose in or out of data collection, but they are still rare.

Source: psychlearningcurve.org

Technology For Students, Teachers, and Staff

Having analytics and technologies is one thing, but providing students, teachers, and staff with sufficient training in how to use these systems is another critical thing. More than 50% of institutions in the country are finding ways to expedite the use of these technologies by the above-mentioned groups of individuals. Six out of ten institutions provide applications that allow students to gather data like their present academic standing and resources that include strategies for improvement. Students in colleges and universities that don’t provide such access could struggle in monitoring their progress during difficult times, and students, teachers, and other school staff might lack enough training or even the permission to use these tech tools to help students around the world.

Credential Planning Technology For Students

Students must create, keep track, and adapt to their academic plans to make sure that they are on their way to attaining the credentials that they want. Sometimes, it involves dealing with academic credits across different universities. This need could be even more challenging with the present interruption and vagueness caused by the pandemic. Luckily, most colleges and universities have a basic set of applications that support students’ educational programs and manage their credits even across different institutions. However, there are only a few universities that have technologies that are capable of recommending degrees or courses for students depending on their academic records, among other factors. Most students that have tried using these technologies have found them to be beneficial.

Technologies For Students At Risk

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, when things were relatively stable, students typically experience personal or academic problems. The pandemic is overturning lives and jobs, increasing the possibility of students needing extra help. In the past ten years, digital apps and technological tools that assist students at risk in identifying and supporting them were slowly recognized worldwide. In most universities and colleges, they have systems that identify a student’s academic problems early and to guide them, including the teachers and other staff, to address these problems.

Source: piqsels.com

Almost 40% of these institutions also have technological tools that can recommend students to the community or social resources for help. These tools that help classify and mediate with students who are at academic risk or provide them with resource referrals are still very, very new. Despite this fact, students particularly appreciate them and perhaps might need them now.

Colleges and universities that have embraced these student success technologies at an earlier time and have implemented them on a broader scale have had a substantial advantage during this global health crisis when utilizing digital innovations is less guarded than life in the physical world. Students will require assistance in completing their academic courses and earning their credentials during this unprecedented crisis. This pandemic will serve us many, many lessons for everyone, including how technologies that help student success and other digital tools can still be improved to better adapt to the new normal world.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

If Europe had the Black Death and Spain experienced the tragic Spanish flu outbreak, we now face the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, which has exposed the world to human frailty. The only consolation, thanks to the wonders of technology, is that now we are better equipped than any period of history to fight against a pandemic. When SARS hit in 2002, scientists had a difficult time; in fact, over a year, to identify the genome of the virus. Now, because of technological advancements, the COVID-19 genome was determined in only a month.

China is an example of a country that depends on advanced technology to contain and beat the coronavirus effectively. By exhausting its resources and using the latest technology, China has minimized the impact of the virus to a huge extent. And today, other countries are following suit.

Satellite Monitoring

While other countries tirelessly built temporary sanitation tents and makeshift hospitals, China’s construction of new hospitals was being monitored by GaoFen’s high-resolution observation satellites. This was also reinforced by Zhuhai-1 imaging satellites. Data from these satellites were analyzed at Wuhan University.

TFSTAR is an artificial intelligence satellite that is capable of performing powerful processing and analytics. Chinese scientists are using this technology in combination with geocoding to come up with a health visualization of the coronavirus. It allows people to identify the virus’s geographical reach and discover the distance of the viruses from each other and the number of active infections within a state.

Drones

Source: argolimited.com

In areas where the infection is severe, and people had a higher risk of getting contaminated, drones were used in their place. They transported patient samples and medical equipment to save time and hasten delivery time while completely preventing contamination.

There were various types of drones used for various functions. Agricultural drones sprayed disinfectants in the rural regions. Drones with facial recognition were utilized to announce warnings and guidelines about the pandemic. They would also reprimand citizens who were not using their face masks. The Terra, a Japanese-designed drone, carried medical appliances and other essentials in some parts of China that were struggling with the virus.

Tracking And Surveillance Systems

China is not popular for being a country that takes individual privacy of utmost importance. To efficiently beat the virus, it created a robust surveillance system by gathering people’s travel history, cellphone location data, and body temperature, among others. The data is then analyzed through Machine Learning and Big Data. In addition, CCTV cameras equipped with facial recognition features have been positioned in major quarantine facilities. The collection of data is done through the popular messaging application software WeChat. The data collected is used by the government to identify people who have come in contact with those who were infected and is then able to perform suitable measures to prevent him from further contaminating others.

Source: rawpixel.com

Health Apps And Sensors

For public health and safety, the Chinese government has been using advanced sensors and surveillance networks. It collaborated with Tencent and Alibaba to create a color-coded health scoring system that is capable of tracking millions of their citizens daily. Yellow, red, and green smartphones were assigned to people in Hangzhou based on their medical and travel backgrounds.

This color-coding system determined whether or not a person was to be quarantined or allowed to go out and stay in public areas. People were obliged to log in to an app through pay wallet services, such as Ant’s wallet or Alipay. If a person’s phone was green, it means that he is permitted in public areas but must corresponding QR codes in offices, metro stations, and other areas. Checkpoints were also positioned to check people’s body temperatures. Currently, over 200 Chinese cities are utilizing this system.