E-Listening

 

What Is E-listening?

E-Listening is an abbreviation of 'Email Listening'. It is a new free service provided by Lancaster Nightline to provide support with a listening and information service via email. It can be for any reason, and you can talk about anything whilst being assured that all the tenents apply both to the telephone and email service. The only difference is the way the support is being provided, the service remains the same. It is designed to provide an alternative means of contact, for example if you do not feel comfortable speaking to someone verbally. It is also designed to help support those who would not usually be able to use the telephone service, and welcome emails from students with hearing or speech difficulties.

 

How do I use E-listening?

To use the service, simply send an email from any email account, it doesn't have to be from your university wing account. You can send this email at any time as emails can be sent 24 hours a day, but replies will be written usually at night. Please send text based emails only (html or richtext is fine) and do not send pictures or attachements. This is an anonymous and confidential service and we are not interested in finding out your identity but if you prefer, you can create an anonymous free email account, such as Hotmail or Yahoo. Send the email to:

 

 

How quickly do you reply?

Usually, we aim to respond to emails within 48 hours of receiving them. In practice, we hope you will receive a reply sooner, and aim to reply to emails as soon as possible. The emails will be responses from fully trained members of Nightline who have received additional training for E-listening. The reponses will usually be sent during service hours (10pm to 8am term time) as that's when the service is running. Emails will be replied to on a first received first replied service. The message history (the original message received) will be sent in addition to the response.

 

What about telephoning?

Using the E-listening service does not affect the telephone service. All calls will still be answered during opening hours. You can use both services at the same time, using one service does not restrict your use of the other.

 

Security and Privacy

All emails are kept in a password protected account and are only viewable by trained Nightliners. Email content is kept confidential, and under no circumstances will details from emails be printed, reproduced, forwarded, or details disclosed to anyone other than the Nightliners providing the service. All emails are stored temporarily to ensure they have been replied to appropriately, and all are then periodically deleted once replied. No further storage or archiving is made of these emails. Nightline will never send an email unless one is received initially. We will never ask for your personal details, usernames or passwords, nor send attachements, however, we advise you have an Antivirus program in place for general email security. Free copies of Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition are available from the ISS reception.

 

E-listening Disclaimer

The E-listening sevice is run by Nightline members who have been trained for email based support. They are not trained to offer counselling or advice. However, both our email service and our telephone service offer an opportunity to discuss problems and emotions with a volunteer in a confidential, non-directive and non-judgemental setting. Whilst we make every effort to ensure the safety and security of the e-listening service, we cannot guarantee against viruses or technical failures beyond our reasonable control. Please contact us if you have any further queries about the nature of the service.