Maya Centre

We evaluated the experience of offering and accessing counselling support remotely, from the perspective of Maya Centre staff, and service users.
Woman in headphones on a webcam call

We were delighted with Healthwatch Islington’s approach to this evaluation. Their communication was really clear and prompt. Staff were consulted and listened to prior to the evaluation commencing, especially around sensitivity and boundaries regarding communicating with potentially vulnerable service users.

Chief Executive Officer, Maya Centre

What we did

  • Healthwatch used a qualitative approach of semi-structured interviews by phone or video-call (based on the interviewee’s preference). We spoke to staff and service users, using a similar topic guide for both.
  • In the interests of service user welfare, we set clear boundaries about what the interview would and would not cover, and made it clear that responses were confidential unless there were safeguarding concerns.
  • Service users were not asked to disclose anything relating to their health needs.
  • In order to preserve the anonymity of participants, we did not collect monitoring data.

"As a result of the evaluation, we feel more confident about delivering a mixed model of face-to-face and remote therapy. We are better able to plan for this in terms of thinking through which service-users might benefit from remote therapy and how to prepare them for it.

Assumptions, ideas and findings were fed back and discussed in order to get the most nuanced picture. The final report is thoughtful and reflective, mirroring the ways in which we think about and deliver psychotherapy. Thanks again to the Healthwatch team."

Chief Executive Officer, Maya Centre

Downloads

Developing a virtual model of counselling support: feedback from staff and service users

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