Utilizing the new media to provide mental health services to young people

This paper reports on a project on a mental health service offered on the Web for young people, who have drug problems, especially with ecstasy. The service is offered by the Medical University of Luebeck and was developed in interdisciplinary co-operation between medicine, computer science and design. The focus of the project was on meeting user-specific needs: providing information and help for young people and for their peer-groups. A pre-condition for success is to design the medium according to the user needs, which means an adequate use of the medium. We provide some usage data, which reveal a need for that kind of Web service. Compared with other psychotherapeutic counseling-services which are common in the USA for several years and which increase in Europe as well, there are some main differences. The e-mail and counseling service is for free, although it is provided by a professional psychotherapist, who is an expert in the subject area of ecstasy addiction and works also with young drug addicts in drug clinics. The work is based on strict confidentiality as it is given in consultations outside the Web. Furthermore, the project will apply technology enabling anonymous Web use.