When humans need humans: The lack of use of computer-based ICT in distance pastoral care

Computer-based information and communication technologies (ICT) have become a part of many people's working lives. Such technology is used in the form of e-mails and video-conferencing across many sectors of society and these are sometimes claimed to have replaced the need for face-to-face meetings. However, certain areas of work still seem to need face-to-face meetings; this paper focuses on one such area of work, that of Christian pastoral care. The article discusses the needs of clients and carers involved in crisis care within a Christian ethos and assesses why ICT tools seem to be mainly superfluous in situations where crisis caring has to take place at a distance. Caplan's model of crisis is used to indicate typical characteristics of people in crisis. Evidence from the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001 in the UK is used to investigate the usage of ICT in a real situation where distance pastoral care was essential. The findings show that the telephone was by far the best ICT tool although e-mail and the Internet were used in more formal business situations