The 'safe' app for teens to talk mental health

Dr Suzi Godson said they had "an intuitive understanding that it would bring relief to a lot of young people"

The co-founder of a mental health app for young people has said words of comfort from peers can be "much more meaningful" than those from family.

Psychologist Dr Suzi Godson is one of the founders of Tellmi, which delivers digital peer support for young people aged 11 to 18 that is always monitored.

The app, which was recently launched in Oxfordshire, is a space where they can discuss their feelings anonymously.

Dr Godson said that she and her partner had "an intuitive understanding that it would bring relief to a lot of young people".

As an advice columnist for the Times, she said she had received "millions of letters and emails from young people who felt like they were the only person in the world because they were dealing with a specific issue".

"I realised that if I could build a technology that allowed them to talk to each other safely, they would immediately feel better because they'd know that lots and lots of other people felt that same issue and they were fine."

"That's why I built Tellmi and I was lucky enough to team up with my partner who is an engineer," she said.

The app was launched in 2017 but it took time to build the community.

Dr Godson said the pandemic and in particular the closure of schools in March 2020 led to an increase in the number of young people coming to the app.

"By the time we came out of the pandemic, we had 40,000 users," she said.

"So it was incredibly rapid growth. We now have 100,000."

She said their moderators and councillors were available from 8:30 GMT until 23:00, "all day, every day, 365 days a year".

Within Tellmi's model, every post and reply is checked by a human.

High-risk posts are immediately referred to a qualified counsellor, who responds without the child having to ask for help.

Dr Godson finds the one-to-one model, which most support for young people is built on, unhelpful.

"It presents the idea that somebody else can fix you.

"In actual fact, what we need to be giving young people are the tools they need to help themselves because there aren't enough councillors in the world to help the number of young people that have mental health issues."

Dr Godson said thanks to the app, teens could unpack issues with their peers "privately and anonymously"

A testimony by a 15-year-old user from Oxford, who wished to remain anonymous, reads: "I get therapy but Tellmi helps way more, it's like a support group but a lot easier as it's anonymous, I don't have to worry about going somewhere or seeing other people".

"We looked at all the reasons why social media is so popular and then we took those ingredients but we made them safe," Dr Godson said.

She observed that when young people first use the app, "they don't know what their issue is" but knew they felt "low and anxious".

"And so they talk to their peers and unpack it privately and anonymously.

"As they learn more ... they begin to feel more confident and a bit clearer about what's causing the feelings that they're having.

"From there, they build the confidence to make a decision about what they want to do next."

Dr Godson said they wanted to "work with everybody" to "break down barriers to support".

"I think about 51% of people who use TellMi have no other support at all."

She said the app had a lot of users with autism and ADHD and users from within the LGBTQ+ and black communities.

The team was now "really delighted to be working in Oxfordshire".

"We have so many plans and we are really interested in co-creation with young people," Dr Godson said, adding that they would love to work with schools.

"We are all about collaboration, creativity and finding ways to excite young people about self-help and positive psychology."