Media Room
Online counselling lets off steam
By: Rosie-Ann Grover The Hamilton Spectator
January 16,2010
BURLINGTON (Jan 16, 2010)
Who: Stress Chat
What: An instant messaging service that gives employees immediate access to more than 15 trained counsellors for stress on the job -- work-related or personal.
Since: January 2009
Contact: Heidi Cowie, 905-634-9291 or stresschat.ca.
Let's talk about it.
Whether it's the bad news on the home front or more work dumped on you at the office, how does one maintain composure and remain professional?
Take a deep breath and log on for a chat before you blow up on someone -- like your boss.
"Have you ever felt like your head was going to pop off?" asks Heidi Cowie, a Burlington counsellor with a passion for stress relief.
It's a struggle for a life-work balance, one she herself faces every day.
Cowie, who has operated a private practice offering family and individual counselling since 1991, has seen a dramatic rise in clientele on stress leave from work.
She created an anonymous online instant messaging system early last year called Stress Chat, where modern technology meets mental health.
Immediacy is key. With emergency access to 15 counsellors, employees can take up to 15 minutes to decompress. It can reduce absenteeism due to stress by 50 per cent in the first year alone, she says.
With various employee assistance programs often offered through workplaces, how are so workers many "crashing and burning" from anxieties?
"I realized it was because we don't handle stress in a timely fashion," Cowie says. It may be a week before your next session with a counsellor or therapist, if the individual is even seeking help at all.
"A lot of people are just not willing to admit that they have to go. Or that they want to go."
Canada's Safety Council reports 75 per cent of employers say stress is the leading cause of disability claims.
And while Statistics Canada estimates workplace absenteeism costs Canadian companies an average of $16 billion a year, Cowie believes tools like Stress Chat make a difference because they help to address issues as they happen.
Employees are signed up with a fictitious user and e-mail and have access from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. How many times a week or month one can sign on for an instant chat depends on what package an employer buys. It's not meant to be longer than 15 minutes on any given day.
Employers will also get feedback, without naming names, about what topics are pressuring their workforce.
In a few weeks, Cowie will roll out the same concept to the general consumer with a version called My Stress Chat.
While this type of counselling may see her one-on-one visits diminish as people take to getting help online, don't stress. She says there are no plans to close her Fairview Street office.