American psychotherapy goes on the internet

Websites offering mental health counselling and psychotherapy are springing up on the internet. Some sites are run by well respected, long established organisations offering free, confidential services; others are run by smaller, less well known bodies, which demand high fees.

The US National Mental Health Association, for example, offers a free, anonymous, and confidential screening test for clinical depression online at www.nmha.org. The website, which opened in February, says: “The interactive depression screening feature educates visitors about the symptoms and treatments for depression and guides them toward appropriate professional help …