“Kyoto University LINE Counseling Service” Launched at Kyoto Shinkin Bank

Since 2019, KRC has been conducting a research project called “SNS Counseling and Community Support.” The purposes of this project are to contribute to the community by utilizing the findings of clinical psychology and to establish new mental health care services from an academic perspective. In April, 2020, the project started providing SNS counseling via the “Kyoto University LINE Counseling Service” for company employees and their family members. In addition to providing mental support to employees of community-based companies, this service also tries to improve the quality of mental health care in the age of SNS by promoting basic research in this field, where knowledge is limited.

In SNS counseling services that are now actively being introduced by local governments, people who wish to consult with a clinical psychologist can do so in a chat format that is available on many devices (smartphones, etc). In other words, the use of this modern tool makes counseling easily accessible to those who need it. In the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic, SNS Counseling is attracting attention due to its non-face-to-face format.

It has been already shown that this kind of psychological service can support an individual and also improve the subjective health of the company as a whole. In addition, psychological testing and other services are also included and can be used as tools for self-analysis and internal communication.

Because of these achievements, the Kyoto University Line Counseling Service was introduced as one of the new in-house mental health care services for the Kyoto Shinkin Bank on October 1, 2021. Prior to the launch, a press conference was held at the head office of the bank on September 29, 2021.

At the beginning of the press conference, Mr. Takayuki Sakakida, President of the Kyoto Shinkin Bank, said that they would like to give their employees ease of mind by introducing several non-face-to-face systems that they can easily access, in addition to the face-to-face counseling that they already use.

Mr. Sakakida also stated that their bank would like to increase the accessibility of mental health care to support their various employees by simultaneously introducing three different type of psychological counseling:

The CARE:        Email counseling service by midwives (With Midwife Inc.)
emol:                 Conversation application with AI robot “emol” (emol inc.)
Kyoto University LINE Counseling Service:      Our chat-based counseling service

Also, Mr. Sakakida added that as a role model, they would build a mental health support system for regional companies.

Following an overview of the other two companies that are providing counseling services, Prof. Yukiko Uchida (Vice Director, KRC) gave an explanation about the Kyoto University LINE Counseling Service, “This counseling service was created in response to the changes and needs of the times. It provides mental support for individuals by clinical psychologists or certified public psychologists, in addition to feedback to companies on overall trends. We can say that this is a comprehensive service, as it will be used to improve the internal environment, while protecting the confidentiality of each user.”

As a research institution, KRC will continue to cooperate with the Kyoto Shinkin Bank in order to contribute as much as possible to raising awareness and building a system for mental health care throughout the region.

If your company is interested in the project, please contact us at the address below (in Japanese). We conduct research after the data has been completely anonymized. Therefore, the data published or reported to companies is in a form that cannot identify individuals.

Kyoto University LINE Counseling Service (in Japanese)
http://kokoro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/sns/

For inquiries, please contact:
kokoro_line*mail2.adm.kyoto-u.ac.jp (Please change “*” to “@”)

Project Overview (English version)
http://kokoro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/2021pj_19-1-07_en/

*Related articles in media (Japanese versions only)
Kyoto Shinkin Bank’s News Site
https://www.kyoto-shinkin.co.jp/whatsnew/pdf2021/n21-0550.pdf

Kyoto Shimbun Website
https://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/articles/gallery/647083

NIKKEI Shimbun Website
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUF2953T0Z20C21A9000000/

2021/10/27