Kooth partners with Help for Heroes for mental health support

The children and young adults of the armed forces community can now access mental health support online thanks to a collaboration between Help for Heroes and Kooth.

The two companies are teaming up to ensure that children from armed forces families are able to access mental health and wellbeing support digitally, when they need it.

The Kooth Help for Heroes services offers free, safe, confidential and non-judgemental professional health for children aged between 11 and 18. Importantly, there are no waiting lists or thresholds to meet so it is accessible for anyone with an internet-connected device.

Dr Lynne Green, chief clinical officer at Kooth, said: “We are proud to be working in partnership with Help for Heroes to ensure those aged 11 to 18 have access to a digital mental health service.

“One that offers a choice of safe and confidential support options; encourages children and young adults to seek mental health support on their terms; and enables them to engage with options that match their individual needs.

“Children and young adults can often find it hard to reach out and ask for support with mental health and wellbeing concerns. No matter the situation or issue, Kooth.com/helpforheroes provides the support when and where they need it.”

Users of the service will be able to access one-to-one text-based sessions with experienced counsellors and wellbeing practitioners. These can be booked in advance to take place betweem 12 and 10pm during the week and 6pm-10pm at the weekend. Drop-in text chats are also available.

In addition, there is a range of therapeutic and interactive activities and content that can be accessed, including online journals and interactive goal and mood trackers.

All the content has been pre-moderated by Kooth practitioners and is age appropriate.

Lis Skeet, service director at Help for Heroes, said: “Service can impact the health, wellbeing and welfare needs of the whole family. This includes issues difficult for children and young people to deal with.

“That’s why providing mental health and wellbeing support for the younger generation is so vital. By partnering with Kooth we’re pleased to be able to provide quality, age-appropriate support in a format that is quick and easy to access.”

Kooth recently revealed a partnership with GLUU, which was to provide mental health support to whole school communities using GLUU’s askOLA platform.