Letting children and young people thrive

A few features you'll find on Kooth for children and young people include mini-activities, access to live forums, as well as articles written by young people and the Kooth team.

Overview

1 in 5 children and young people suffer from mental health illness in any given year. At Kooth, we believe every young person has the right to thrive and to access high quality mental health care.

Kooth.com is commissioned both in the UK and the US. In the UK: The NHS, Local Authorities, charities and businesses have access to anonymous and personalised mental health support for Children and Young People. With over 1.3m logins per year, we provide end to end support whatever the need.

In the US: Kooth was introduced to the US population in late 2022. Piloting a landmark statewide pilot contract, Kooth launched in Pennsylvania and opened access to over 150,000 young people. With the US platform growing exponentially each week, Kooth is setting up to replicate its success in the Americas.

What you can expect to find on Kooth

Clinical model: Kooth is designed to meet the Thrive Framework for System Change (Wolpert et al 2019). Our platform is unique in that it works with children and young people who may need advice and signposting, help, more ongoing help or immediate risk support. Our clinical model is NICE informed and we have ongoing pathways mapped across the UK.
Accessible and age appropriate: Our platform has been designed over the past 15 years with children and young people. We know how they want to access services, what they want to know and how they want to engage. We are focussed on ensuring all aspects of the platform meet the Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA.
Anonymous and available: Kooth is an anonymous site which helps children and young people to feel safe and confident in exploring their concerns and seeking professional support. Kooth.com is an online application removing the need for Apple/Android accounts, data requirements and the stigma of mental health apps on your devices.
Human practitioners: Our live counselling functionality allows children and young people to receive professional support through either booked or drop in sessions as and when a session is required. Our qualified practitioners are real people, not bots, with significant experience in working with children and young people.
Multiple ways to get help: Our suite of applications allows children and young people to choose how they want to access help: Magazines, Forums, Activity Centres, Messaging, Live Counselling. Each component can be accessed as a stand alone or as part of a wider care package.
No waiting lists or referrals: Access to Kooth is immediate. There is no need for a referral, no waiting lists and the service is available 24/7.
Risk and safety: Managing risk is what we do. We have a robust risk profiling system across all parts of the platform that allows us to prioritise and to reach out. Safeguarding encompasses all we do at every level of care. We know when to signpost and refer on and how to psychologically hold people and keep them safe during crisis.
94% recommend: On every part of our platform we ask for feedback on functionality and measure outcomes. 94% of our children and young people would recommend Kooth to a friend.

Case studies

Sanaya's story

Helping Sanaya get the support she really needs

Kooth and Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Increasing access and improving CYP mental health

Victims of crime

Helping young Victims of Crime in Devon and Cornwall

Outcomes

Kooth is committed to developing the evidence base for our services and online therapy as a whole.

We work with leading academic partners, and have a team of in-house researchers and data scientists overseen by Chief Research Officer building research strategies to meet corporate and policy objectives in mental health.

We are skilled in developing strong relationships between academia, industry, policy and commissioners, and driven by aligning user needs and wants with an evidence base to ensure meaningful research and data.

Our key activities are:

Innovating on outcome measures – working with University of Manchester and Anna Freud Centre to develop ground breaking evidence
Developing evidence and cost effectiveness for online peer support – with London School of Economics
Demonstrating impact of online services on health and social care eco-system – working with key partners in Greater Manchester
Observing impact of Covid-19 on our users and mental health of our populations

We publish regularly in highly regarded peer review academic journals. We currently have three publications in review and have a target of six papers published in 2020.

View our research publications in full.

Reports

Get in touch

Any questions or looking for more information? Just contact us. We love to help.