Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - "You've got to take them seriously"
T2 - meeting information needs in mental health care
AU - Clarke, K.
AU - Rooksby, J.
AU - Rouncefield, M.
PY - 2007/3
Y1 - 2007/3
N2 - In this article we explore the practical aspects of providing mental health information over the telephone, and discuss how this may be used to inform the creation of a website. We draw from an ethnographic study of an `information and listening helpline'. By paying close attention to how the helpline operators `take seriously' their callers' problems and requests - indeed, by taking the work of the phone operators seriously - we show that the operators artfully talk, categorize and translate to help the individual caller and to satisfy organizational demands. A website is seen by the helpline in question as a logical move to providing accessible information to a wider audience. Whilst web-based and phone-based services might both appear to function along similar lines for providing information, we question how a web-based system might afford or complement the kinds of services that can be done over the telephone.
AB - In this article we explore the practical aspects of providing mental health information over the telephone, and discuss how this may be used to inform the creation of a website. We draw from an ethnographic study of an `information and listening helpline'. By paying close attention to how the helpline operators `take seriously' their callers' problems and requests - indeed, by taking the work of the phone operators seriously - we show that the operators artfully talk, categorize and translate to help the individual caller and to satisfy organizational demands. A website is seen by the helpline in question as a logical move to providing accessible information to a wider audience. Whilst web-based and phone-based services might both appear to function along similar lines for providing information, we question how a web-based system might afford or complement the kinds of services that can be done over the telephone.
KW - information giving
KW - helpline
KW - mental healthcare
U2 - 10.1177/1460458207073644
DO - 10.1177/1460458207073644
M3 - Journal article
VL - 13
SP - 37
EP - 45
JO - Health Informatics Journal
JF - Health Informatics Journal
SN - 1741-2811
IS - 1
ER -