| dc.description.abstract | Sri	Lanka	has	one	of	the	highest	suicidal	rates	in	the	world.	It	has	been	found	that	these	cases	were	caused	mostly	as	a	result	of	mental	health	disorders,	such	as	depression	and	anxiety.	A	recent	study	conducted	at	the	Rajarata	University	showed	that	approximately	5-10%	of	the	Sri	Lankan	population	suffer	from	some	form	of	mental	health	condition	that	require	treatment.(Jaufer,	2016)		This	study	aims	to	examine	the	development	of	a	Web-Based	Expert	System	which	will	provide	Personalized	Psychotherapeutic	Counselling	for	anyone	in	any	location.	If	everyone	who	has	a	suffering	problem	and	have	no	one	to	share	their	grievances	could	use	the	proposed	system,	then	everyone	will	have	a	hope	and	happiness	in	their	lives	and	the	suicidal	rate	would	decrease	significantly.	The	main	objective	of	developing	this	system	is	to	address	all	the	drawbacks	of	the	currently	available	face	to	face	counselling	system,	while	this	system	mainly	focuses	the	Sri	Lankan	community.	This	system	will	perform	as	a	platform	to	connect	clients	who	need	mental	health	advices,	with	licensed	counsellors	of	Sri	Lanka.	The	significance	of	the	proposed	web	based	counselling	system	is,	that	it	will	present	a	set	of	standard	and	psychologically	approved	questions	to	the	clients	before	receiving	the	counselling	service.	By	using	Prolog	Logical	Programming	Language,	the	answers	provided	by	the	client	will	be	analyzed,	and	then	the	system	will	predict	the	area	of	the	problem	of	that	particular	client.	Then,	the	system	will	direct	the	client	to	the	relevant	counsellor	that	has	specialized	on	that	relevant	area.	Finally,	the	client	could	use	a	preferred	method	of	communication	facilitated	by	the	system,	to	communicate	with	the	counsellor.	The	system	will	also	use	encryption	methods	to	ensure	confidentiality	of	the	conversations	carried	out	between	clients	and	counsellors.	The	proposed	system	will	be	a	fully	integrated	version	comprised	of	a	Web	Application,	Android	Mobile	Application,	Short	Message	Sending	(SMS)	gateway	and	a	Payment	gateway. | en_US |