Hallett Jonathan, Brown Graham, Maycock Bruce, Langdon Patricia
Western Australian AIDS Council.
Promot Educ. 2007;14(3):150-4.
This article is a case study of an Internet chat room outreach project in Perth, Western Australia. The CyberReach project sought to adapt current peer based health promotion outreach, training and supervision frameworks to an online outreach setting in a way that was effective and supported by the online community. It targeted marginalised groups to trial the provision of online mental and sexual health promotion incorporating a participatory action research model into its development and implementation. Three 6-week trial periods were conducted and significant changes were made in response to changes in the online environment and to improve sustainability and effectiveness of the protocols. Four themes arose from CyberReach's experience: online group processes are unique due to the creation of extensive personal networks and occurrence of disclosure without face-to-face contact across potentially large geographic barriers; flexibility is required to adapt to technological changes and online community flux; enforcing boundaries and delineating peer education from therapeutic support can be challenging when only using text-based communication; and Internet outreach can be time intensive with small returns in actual community engagement and constant technological up-skilling of staff may be required. Based on the project's experiences we offer the following recommendations when planning similar Internet outreach strategies: Funding and planning groups need to be aware that the Internet environment is constantly changing and planning and funding arrangements need to reflect a capacity to remain flexible; Programs need to be firmly connected to the communities they are outreaching therefore a peer-based education component is strongly encouraged; Careful consideration should be taken regarding data collection so that the environment and the individuals within are respected; Further research needs to be conducted to understand the styles and approaches of different online interactions, and the relative influence of technical platforms, gender and age.
本文是对澳大利亚西部珀斯一个互联网聊天室推广项目的案例研究。“网络拓展”项目旨在将当前基于同伴的健康促进推广、培训及监督框架，以一种有效的方式并在在线社区的支持下，应用于在线推广环境。该项目针对边缘化群体，尝试提供在线心理和性健康促进服务，并在其开发与实施过程中纳入参与式行动研究模型。项目进行了三个为期6周的试验期，并根据在线环境的变化做出了重大调整，以提高方案的可持续性和有效性。“网络拓展”项目的经验产生了四个主题：由于广泛个人网络的形成以及在跨越潜在巨大地理障碍的情况下无需面对面接触即可进行信息披露，在线群体过程独具特色；需要灵活性以适应技术变革和在线社区的变化；仅使用基于文本的通信时，划定界限并区分同伴教育与治疗支持可能具有挑战性；互联网推广可能需要大量时间投入，而在实际社区参与方面回报较小，并且可能需要工作人员不断提升技术技能。基于该项目的经验，我们在规划类似的互联网推广策略时提出以下建议：资助和规划团队需要意识到互联网环境在不断变化，规划和资助安排需要体现保持灵活性的能力；项目需要与它们所推广的社区紧密相连，因此强烈鼓励包含基于同伴的教育部分；应谨慎考虑数据收集，以便尊重环境及其中的个人；需要进行进一步研究，以了解不同在线互动的方式和方法，以及技术平台、性别和年龄的相对影响。
