Mind offers compassionate conversations with volunteers. Those who seek support are anonymous, but it is estimated that about 50 percent of everyone who contacts them via the Suicide Line’s chat is between 7 and 19 years old. Many who contact Mind have severe feelings of hopelessness. MIND want to remedy this through the project supported by H.M. Queen Silvia’s Foundation, called “Mind the Children”.
Through the support from H.M. Queen Silvia’s foundation – Care About the Children, MIND want to ensure that more children and young adults who seek support from Mind have faster access to a conversation with a volunteer and knowledge about mental health, but also that they are stimulated while they are in the digital waiting room before they are assigned a volunteer to talk to.
Often when the children and young adults turn to the Suicide Line they use chat rather than the telephone. When someone use the chat on the Suicide Line, they often need to wait for one of the volunteers to become available. In order not to be met by a blank page, MIND is building content for the digital waiting room, where children and adolescents can directly alleviate their anxiety, distress or depression through various tools and content in the form of text, image and moving material that is adapted for them. MIND want them to feel that they can be distracted, feel support and encouragement and get concrete suggestions on what they can do at the moment.
The content of this digital waiting room is based, among other things, on the basic knowledge for increasing children’s and young people’s psychological well-being that Mind has developed. It provides knowledge and skills in understanding oneself better, dealing with difficult emotions or being there for a friend who is feeling bad.
Within the project, MIND are also developing new digital tools to make it easier for even more children and young adults to reach out and take advantage of the humane support that MIND offer.