English abstract
The study aims to explore the nature of telephone counselling as one of the modern methods in the field of family counselling in addition to the social characteristics of callers seeking this counselling service in terms of gender, educational attainment, geographic distribution, problem and other variables. The study also strives to connect these variables in order to identify the extent of the relation or influence between them. Moreover, the study seeks to illuminate the main difficulties facing counselors at the Oman MOSD in order to develop an adequate conception that better supports and helps energize the service. For this study, the researcher adopted the methodology of the Social Survey (GSS) for all cases recorded on the MOSD telephone family counselling system between May 2009 and end of December 2015, with 313 out of 334 cases studied, and 21 cases excluded for incomplete data on the system. As a study tool, the researcher relied on analyzing the content of the Division of Telephone Counselling's database and statistics. The researcher likewise used the interviewing manual for counselors to detect the difficulties they face. The study findings showed that females are more prone to seek out the service than males, and that the highest rate of calls comes in early in the week - on Sundays and Mondays - and gradually drops as the week progresses. The study fithermore revealed that the highest percentage of recorded cases were General Education Diploma holders at 48.6%, and marital problems were the most frequently raised issues (52.7%) compared to other problems which focused on illicit sexual relations, followed by poor family communication, and the waning of emotional connection. The principal problems when it comes to children under the age of 18 were aggressiveness, disobeying their parents, and concerns about their children's romantic relationships. Statistical testing showed a correlation between gender and problems. Indeed, females were more frequent callers than males, and their problems centered on specific issues that were different from their male counterparts. The study highlighted some administrative, technical and professional difficulties experienced by MOSD counsellors, most importantly the shortage in specialized and qualified professionals and the lack of training programs. The study concluded with several recommendations, including expanding the provision of family counselling services across Omani governorates, recruiting staff who are 1) specialized and 2) qualified; ensuring appropriate specialized training based on the chief problems received by the Department in general and the Division of Telephone Counselling in particular, in addition to creating the right space for the provision of family counselling services in all Omani governorates.
