ABSTRACT
Introduction: A private university in Santos offers a free psychological service for assessing and intervening in chilhood psychological problems through a internship program which had to be delivered online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The interns were only allowed to attend their parents online, instead of their children. Objective(s): Evaluating this new online service is the aim of this work. Method(s): 24 parents of 34 children aged 4-10 years were attended by pairs or trios of 52 interns. The were modules made up of assessment, intervention and feedback, using different instruments such as interviews, screening questionnaires and the observation of 5-minute free play in domestic environment and of a family collage through a video recorded by parents. Feedback and intervention happened in various moments. The interns created a storybook using metaphoric narrative as a feedback tool in which a synthesis of the psychodiagnostic process and orientation was presented to the children. Result(s): There was progress and decrease or elimination of symptons in 19 of the 34 children. Among the children who did not improve, one of them did not present any difficulties;7 of them had many absences and the other 7 were referred to further assessment for reasons related to the complexity of their difficulties or a probable unsuitability of the online orientation. Conclusion(s): The orientation was helpful for 55,89% of the children, showing to be a valid alternative for families who do not have financial resources for attending private clinics or fail to access public health services or even during social distance measures.
ABSTRACT
IntroductionIn response to the spread of COVID-19, many Brazilian therapists faced the challenge of taking their practices online considering legal and ethical issues, besides learning to handle new technologies in a way the therapeutic setting was maintained. The cooperation of the family is fundamental for the creation and maintenance of an adequate therapeutic setting. Children are not sufficiently mature to speak clearly about what bothers them or to talk about how they feel and why, so, drawing, pretend playing, story telling, playing games are the common tools for children’s communication during therapy.ObjectivesEvaluating if online therapy for children can support therapeutic play tools and be effective in a virtual environment preserving the therapeutic setting.MethodsTwo children aged 6 to 11 attended the psychological sessions that were conducted through video calls.The family should provide a silent and private room for those sessions. The children were free to choose the toy they would like to play with and that was available at home such as board games, comic and story books. Mimicry, drawing, an adaptation of the Winnicott Squiggle Game were used, as well as electronic games through screen sharing.ResultsThe emotional conflicts were expressed either through conventional games and play or electronic games. Playing with children online was possible as well as maintaining the therapeutic alliance in order to carry on with the treatment in a proper therapeutic setting.ConclusionsOnline therapy for kids showed to be an effective form of service delivery, under strict measures of social distancing in Brazil.