Troubled youth prefer WhatsApp to ask for help

When the Office of the Children’s Advocate rolled out its SafeSpot helpline for children and teenagers two years ago, they knew children would have preferred the option of sending WhatsApp messages whenever they need assistance.

So, they never left that option out after doing their research and planning the initiative. Two years later, the strategy has proven to be a huge success, resulting in approximately 2,000 contacts made by children reporting an issue affecting them.

This was outlined by Diahann Gordon Harrison, Children’s Advocate for Jamaica, in a report on findings from the 2022 operation of SafeSpot, during an event held at the Terra Nova Hotel in the parish of St Andrew on Wednesday.

After conducting a full year’s analysis of contacts made to SafeSpot in 2022, WhatsApp communication proved to be the preferred choice for children, as it is a virtual safe space where children in distress may send words, sentences, voice notes, images and videos of their surroundings to a counsellor at on the 24/7 helpline, with no one in their surroundings – including their parents, guardians or caregivers – being tipped off.

“It speaks volumes, because it really reflects how our children communicate these days ... Children reached out to SafeSpot primarily by WhatsApp. They don’t want to talk. They don’t want to necessarily hear a live voice, but they use the channel that is most comfortable to them and teenagers and youngsters are a texting nation. And this is very instructive for us because when we did the feasibility study at the time of conceptualising and creating SafeSpot, we asked children, ‘How would you want to get the support?’ and they said, ‘If you don’t have WhatsApp, forget it, because this is what we want’. And what’s very important is that SafeSpot responded to that request and we have qualified, trained counsellors ... psychologists and volunteers who provide the support and counselling through WhatsApp,” Gordon Harrison said.

“They understand that if a child reaches out to them via WhatsApp, it’s their comfort language and they may be in a space where they do not want to risk being overheard,” she said. She says the communication continues via WhatsApp and not a phone call for the protection of the child and to win the contactor’s trust.

Gordon Harrison referenced a report involving a 14-year-old girl who told her counsellor that she would have to delete the number and WhatsApp conversation after making her report, as to not let her caregiver know.

“This child mentioned feeling depressed and stated when she reached out to us that her mother had abused her physically and verbally. It was mentioned that the mother beat her with a shoe until her hand was swollen, and that the mother kept saying negative things about her and towards her,” Gordon Harrison explained.

She continued, “She mentioned as well that she was hit in the head and the head was hurting. She was so concerned about the contact that she made with SafeSpot, that she said that she was going to delete the number, because she didn’t want her sister to see the messages between SafeSpot and herself. But this was a matter that was flagged for referral to the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) because it means that that child clearly is one who is to be looked into for being in need of care of protection.”

DIRECT INTERVENTION

Gordon Harrison said the example demonstrates the need for the linkages SafeSpot has with other players in the child protection sector, such as the CPFSA.

In years gone by, unlike with helplines, hotlines were set up for communication for help, but with the evolution of technology, the OCA chose to go beyond that in 2021 and incorporate online platforms (@safespotja) such as WhatsApp, BiP, Instagram and Snapchat, of which 85 per cent of a total of 2,345 contactors were from children making direct reports about challenges they are facing.

In recognition of this, Gordon Harrison said, “The Office of the Children’s Advocate sees SafeSpot as that avenue that gives us a direct line into what children are thinking, what they are saying and what they are experiencing.”

She noted that respondents indicated that they learned of or were informed of the SafeSpot contact number via word-of-mouth and they chose to send messages to it.

The idea for SafeSpot was born during the pandemic when children in need of assistance were isolated based on the restrictions imposed by the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA).

“We were all doing remote work and remote school, and we were all isolated, and what we saw in the child protection sector, was that there was a massive fall-off in the numbers of reports that were coming in into the Children’s Registry, and based on projections, we not for one moment though that this fall-off was due to a reduction in incidence. It was due to an absence of access that children had, and that absence of those persons who normally make the reports, like guidance counsellors and social workers from observing when something was amiss and making those reports. And so a beautiful discussion started, a tripartite discussion that involved the Office of the Children’s Advocate, UNICEF Jamaica and the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ),” Gordon Harrison said.

“Those three entities collaborated, slaved, worked, toiled, imagined, consulted with children as to what they needed, and we came up with the idea that a child helpline that directly contacted or connected children with immediate help; no delay, no middle man writing down something and promising to get back. But being able to give children direct intervention right when they need it, was what was imperative for us and SafeSpot was born on May 19, 2021 and we are particularly pleased at the evidence that we have been able to gather,” she said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com