“Live Chat” Clients at Kids Help Phone: Individual Characteristics and Problem Topics

Objective: Young people in Canada prefer to use the Internet over face-to-face contact when seeking help for problems of daily living and mental health problems. Kids Help Phone (KHP) provides on-demand, anonymous help to young people via telephone and Live Chat technologies. Methods: Two hundred thirty-two phone clients and 230 Live Chat clients responded to a questionnaire at this otherwise anonymous service, providing previously inaccessible data about their individual characteristics and characterizations of the problems for which they sought help. Results: There was a larger proportion of weighty problems (mental health and suicide) among chatters than callers. There were also more non-heterosexual youth, and those who identified as Asian and Black African or Caribbean, using Live Chat than phone. Conclusions: Implications for training Live Chat counsellors to respond effectively to chatters are discussed.