Assessing Service Quality of a Counseling Clinic Ran By a School of Social Work

Background:

Very few social work schools provide direct services to the public. Established by a school of social work during the pandemic to address the increased demands for mental health services and address the difficulty of accessing mental health services, Talk It Out Clinic (TIOC) provides free short-term mental health counseling to residents of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) aged 16 or older who face multiple challenges to attaining health and equity and those who identify as Black or as members of other racialized communities. All counseling services are rendered through a secure online platform or phone, by supervised MSW students as part of their field practicum. Clients referred to TIOC are assigned to a student counselor within a week. This study assesses the service quality of TIOC in its first 15 months of operation.

Methods:

Data were collected from an anonymous online survey after clients completed services at the TIOC. The survey was adapted from the Virtual Client Experience Survey (VCES) 2020 version (Serhal et al., 2020). The VCES comprised 22 Likert-response questions, one open-ended question, and additional sociodemographic questions, representing six domains of health care quality: patient-centered, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness and access to care, safety, and equity. The modified version had a total of 17-items (α = 0.914) using the four-point Likert scale from “1” (strongly disagree) to “4” (strongly agree). An open-ended question was available at the end for clients to provide any additional comments or feedback regarding their virtual appointment.

Results:

Surveys were sent to 67 clients who have completed services by the end of September 2022 and received 35 responses (53% response rate). Most of the respondents were female (56%), between the ages of 19 and 44, Black or Latin American (53%) and were born in Canada (55%). About 57.1% accessed the service by phone, and 45.7% over a computer. Overall, 89% of the clients agreed that they were satisfied with the services at the clinic. Specifically, 94% agreed that it was easy to access care from the TIOC, 100% agreed that they were involved as much as they wanted in decisions about their treatment services and supports, and 100% agreed that their needs and concerns were heard and felt that they received compassionate care. At the termination stage, 92% of clients were confident that they were able to follow their counsellor’s recommendations.

Qualitative feedback from the open-ended responses was generally positive. Most clients expressed that they were satisfied by the work they achieved with their counselors in relatively short period of time, noting the smooth process and trusting relationship they were able to build with their student counselors. However, there were clients who experienced challenges with the online counselling platform, noting the difficulties of online connections.

Implications:

The results helps the TIOC identify its strengths and weaknesses and improve its quality of service. The findings can be used to modify the platform and better tailor its services to enhance service delivery and to meet the needs of clients.