Can peer counseling work over the Internet?

Peer support counseling, where people with mental illnesses are trained to help and council others, has been shown to be beneficial when done face to face, but a new study shows that online versions of this counseling may be less effective. Mark Salzer, chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at Temple, led the study. He says that while online peer counseling wasn’t particularly beneficial in terms of what the researchers were looking for, the participants told him it was still helpful. "They love it, they say in some cases it saved their lives…so there's some benefit that people are getting out of it, we're just not picking up on it based on measures we're using," he said.
Feb. 16, 2011 │ WHYY