Online Mentoring
Online mentoring is designed as a rehabilitative response to individuals with psychological disability, who are afraid to seek help because of social stigmas and their fear of being exposed. Online mentoring helps them receive rehabilitation services and promote themselves actively.
During the project, while remaining anonymous, the individual, will get to know a mentor, someone who is grappling with the same issues, who will help allay their concerns and assist them open up to the concept of rehabilitation and to expose themselves to the various rehabilitation settings.
How does it work?
We create a personalized online mentoring program, where the mentor contacts the individual and guides them throughout the entire period.
The mentoring is provided online and almost entirely anonymous. It helps the individuals move at the right pace towards rehabilitation.
Progress in the program is made in four phases:
- Making initial personal contact
- Changing thought patterns
- Reconnecting with the community and peers who are struggling with a psychological disability
- Readiness for rehabilitation - for example contacting a physician for diagnosis and assessment, preparation for rehabilitation basket or National Insurance Institute committees and contact with various organizations in the community in order to fully exercise their rights.
Work plan for online mentoring
Phase one - establishing an initial virtual personal relationship. At this stage, the goal is to lay the foundation for a relationship based on trust, while creating a rehabilitative alliance between the mentor and the individual. The relationship can be fostered over Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook or other applications for interpersonal communication. The company uses a program for management of the rehabilitation file, through which the individual can set goals along with the mentor and track progress. They can also provide personal feedback regarding their progress.
Phase two - at this stage, after the individual has gotten to know the mentor, work can begin on converting false trust and negative thought patterns into positive thinking, through which the individual can progress to self-help and later seek assistance and settings that can help them promote their personal rehabilitation process.
Phase three: reconnecting to the community and peers in the community who are struggling with a psychological disability. They can help the individual make progress with their personal rehabilitation program.
Phase four - readiness for rehabilitation, in combination with various techniques including, for example, motivational interviewing.
Innovation and main advantages:
By leveraging the internet, we can allay anxiety related to exposure due to ease of access and ability to maintain the client’s anonymity. There is direct and transparent communication with the mentor, allowing the individual to share dilemmas and receive feedback 24/7, if necessary, as well as family support, in order to improve the rehabilitation process. The individual receives a role model with whom they can identify. The mentor is a person who has coped with these issues and is familiar with the rehabilitation processes. The mentor uses knowledge from their own personal experience to promote the individual's rehabilitation and serves as an example of someone who has undergone the same process and succeeded, and despite the difficulties continues to handle the issues they face.
Academic Support
Makshivim Net provides psychological, academic and social support for students suffering from emotional distress, who are afraid of seeking personal assistance.
Support is provided online, primarily through chats. It strengthens the student and helps them integrate into academic life.
The virtual service we provide gives emotional, social and academic support to help the students advance within the academic setting.
Many students who suffer from emotional distress have difficulty obtaining the assistance they truly need. They are also concerned about being stigmatized and are afraid of beginning relationships with students who are tagged as suffering from psychological, social or learning issues. The various assignments and grades lead them to feel uncertain and afraid.
This situation can make them feel that they are failures and have problems coping, particularly among students suffering from emotional distress. Sometimes, the situation may be so bad that the student wants to give up and quit their studies.
We offer:
- Online mentoring by a skilled mentor, which allows the student to remain anonymous and facilitates easy communication
- Creation of a personal academic program
- Assistance adjusting to academic life
- Encouragement to complete assignments as required
- Tools to teach coping skills
- Online chats with other students coping with similar challenges
- Support with social skills
- Strengthening belief in their own abilities and hope to succeed
Three types of mentoring are offered:
Emotional mentoring - coping with anxiety that arises due to the pressures of the academic setting.
Academic mentoring - assistance with all academic aspects of study such as registration, creating a personal study program, time management, assistance with the library website, reading articles and more.
Social mentoring - developing social skills, help communicating with lecturers and students, providing a friendly ear and more.