Childline website redesigned to offer therapy tools and counselling

Childline has worked with Amaze on a range of digital products, which can offer children and young people tailored services including therapeutic tools and different ways of communicating with counselors.

The children’s charity, which specialises in 24-hour confidential counseling, is celebrating its 30^th year this year.

On the new site the needs of children aged 9-19 are catered for in different ways so that they can find the right kind of help they need.

Simplifying process for counsellors

Childline has 750,000 registered users and more than half of those currently contact the organisation via its website.

Amaze and its content partner Episerver won a tender for the project and first realised that the 1500 volunteer counsellors needed a simpler interface to navigate.

A new backend system was also developed, which Amaze says will help with security and guaranteeing the anonymity of service users.

“Essential therapeutic support”

Amaze chief executive officer Natalie Gross says that the service will “safeguard users” and provide them with “essential therapeutic support.”

Children accessing the service will now be able to use self-help and peer-to-peer features as well as counsellor-led therapies across different devices.

New custom built tools include chat features for single or multiple users, ways to indicate and express emotions, as well as other therapeutic tools such as the Drawing Tool, which encourages users to express their feelings visually, rather than through words.

“The new website will provide a forum for children to talk together, access articles, use therapy tools or talk to a volunteer counsellor in a safe haven, where anonymity and security is of absolute importance,” says Gross.