Clarke2007

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Clarke2007
BibType ARTICLE
Key Clarke2007
Author(s) Karen Clarke, John Rooksby, Mark Rouncefield
Title “You've got to take them seriously”: meeting information needs in mental healthcare
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Information Giving, Helplines, Medical EMCA, Mental Health
Publisher
Year 2007
Language
City
Month
Journal Health Informatics Journal
Volume 13
Number 1
Pages 37–45
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1460458207073644
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

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.

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