Breaking down the barriers to help seeking
The release of Kids Helpline Impact Report for 2023 has continued to highlight the importance of providing support to children and young people in the spaces they are comfortable in.
“We cannot allow mental ill-health to become the new norm in children and young people,” said yourtown CEO Tracy Adams.
“Demand for mental health services continues to exceed capacity across our communities and in many cases children and young people may experience a deterioration in their mental health while waiting to access over-stretched services. Long wait times, and a lack of available or affordable services – a gap that is exacerbated in rural and remote areas, are all barriers to keeping children and young people mentally healthy,” continued Ms. Adams.
“A simple, yet powerful solution available to young people is My Circle, one of the services provided by Kids Helpline. My Circle is a free, private, and anonymous social network that offers a peer support community to young people in a clinically moderated environment. It fits the need for an accessible form of support that can play a critical role in social forums that adolescents are comfortable in, and has become an important part of the Kids Helpline ecosystem of support, ensuring peer-to-peer support is available when other services are closed or at capacity,” said Ms. Adams
“This was made possible through a $1M investment by our principal partner of Kids Helpline, Bupa Foundation. The Foundation has supported us to work with the University of Sydney’s Cyberpsychology Research Group to research, develop and upscale the My Circle platform since 2021.
“In 2023 we had nearly 4,000 My Circle new users. Most of these members (70%) were aged between 13 – 17 years of age, which is the main cohort that has used My Circle since its beginning,” Ms Adams continued.
In 2023 we had nearly 4,000 My Circle new users. Most of these members (70%) were aged between 13 – 17 years of age, which is the main cohort that has used My Circle since its beginning,.
“Programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous are among the oldest forms of peer support community, whose effectiveness comes from the sharing of lived experience, compassionate understanding, and member-to-member support.
Similarly, we know that young people are increasingly seeking help online for their social and mental health concerns, for which there is evidence that this is partially a response to concerns they have about felt misunderstood by others and consequently invalidated, judged, or blamed.
For this reason, My Circle has been designed as an anonymous peer support community that is based on connecting young people together who have shared lived experience of social and mental health concerns to provide support to one another. Yet unlike many similar services, the platform is safeguarded by clinical moderators to ensure that conversations between members are safe, respectful and are based on accurate information,” said Dr Pablo Navarro – clinical advisor for yourtown projects.
“My Circle has been able to nationally deliver its innovative mental health intervention to over 16,000 adolescents and young adults experiencing a variety of social, emotional, and mental health concerns. This includes providing positive help-seeking experiences to young people who have never sought help before; those who feel reluctant or unsafe to share sensitive stories with someone in person; those who struggle with speech, language, and communication disability; those who are looking for support outside of mental health service hours; those who feel ‘different’ and are looking for others within their own communities; and those who are looking for post-counselling support while they are in recovery,” said Dr Navarro.
“We’ve discovered that the power of My Circle is in fact the power of community coming together to share their experiences, feel validated, and support one another. We’ve witnessed young people at their lowest and highest – and always in the company of a supportive community sharing words of comfort, support, encouragement, and hope. Members have also told us that the clinical moderators play an important role in safeguarding their community, facilitating group conversation, and providing information and guidance to members when needed,” he said.
“The success of My Circle has been that we have been able to explore new and exciting ways to co-design and co-construct the social platform together with young people, to provide them with a sense of ownership over their community and empowerment on their help-seeking journey. We see this as an important step in building the sustainability of mental health care within communities, so that as young people learn and grow, they can pass along the knowledge and skills they have learned to others in their online and offline communities,” Dr Navarro concluded.
The success of My Circle has been that we have been able to explore new and exciting ways to co-design and co-construct the social platform together with young people, to provide them with a sense of ownership over their community and empowerment on their help-seeking journey.
Bupa APAC Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, Roger Sharp said innovative prevention and early intervention mental health programs like My Circle are vital for ensuring children can feel safe, mentally healthy, and confident in moving forward in their day to day lives.
“Through the Bupa Foundation’s ongoing support for Kids Helpline, we are extremely pleased to be doing our part in helping improve the wellbeing of young Australians,” Roger said.
Kids Helpline is Australia’s only national 24/7 counselling service specifically for children and young people aged 5 to 25 years and is a service of yourtown – free call 1800 55 1800 or visit this link.
