The findings are discussed in terms of concerns from the literature such as the lack of face-to-face contact and ethical issues of the medium. Reasons for non-use of MIM-counselling (n = 2285) were explored, as were experiences of using telephone counselling and face-to-face counselling.
The MIM-counselling experience was described positively as safe and accessible, which encouraged openness, and negatively in terms of practical concerns related to service access times, and specific shortfalls related to the quality of counselling provision. Qualitative data about the experience of using MIM-counselling was analysed using thematic analysis with two coders, with a significant level of agreement (κ >. Despite the MIM-counselling being offered in English, service users’ first languages varied widely, across all 11 official South African languages. The service user group was found to be predominantly young (M = 20.17, sd = 4.97), largely unemployed (44.19%), Black African (72.98%) with a gender split (53.79% female, 46.21% male) similar to population gender demography, χ2 (1, N = 567) =. Using an adaptive, Mobile-based questionnaire, I collected quantitative and qualitative data about the service users (n = 568) of a popular MIM-counselling service called ‘DAS/Angel’, offered free of charge, via MXit - a popular Mobile-Instant-Messenger program. This research hopes to address the paucity of literature on MIM-based counselling. With the widespread adoption of mobile phones, many South Africans now have easy access to health-related information and services, including counselling via Mobile-Instant-Messenger (MIM). Mental health care provision has always lagged behind general health services, especially in rural, poor countries.
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