Social media giants should give free adverts to mental health services because local providers are failing to reach young people, according to a report.
Some 134,000 young people looked for mental health support online from friends, peers or professionals in the last year, a study by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) found.
However, the RSA said social media platforms appeared to be “a driver of ill health” as users turned to each other in place of seeking help from professional mental health services.
It also warned that unmoderated platforms risked directing young people to inappropriate sources of information and support.
Forums such as the Student Room were often commonly-used platforms for young people seeking to access peer-to-peer support, but researchers found impartial advice about treatment and signs and symptoms of mental illnesses were “hard to come by” for users.
The study, which looked at the issue both nationally and within Greater Manchester, noted that the Manchester Resilience Hub set up in the wake of the May 2017 Manchester Arena attack had been particularly effective at communication and engagement outreach to young people.
But beyond this, the report said there was a “noticeable difference” in Greater Manchester between the use of social media by support services and young people themselves, with popular bloggers and forums rather than formal service providers being actively responsive with young people talking about mental health concerns.
The study recommends that public services must make greater efforts to proactively reach young people starting a conversation about mental health online.
It has called for health bodies and social media companies to work together to develop a co-ordinated approach to tackling mental ill-health online, and suggested free targeted advertising for mental health services on social platforms.
a culture of openness among young people can lead us to being hostages to fortune as more awareness leads to more conversations that risk confusing and misdirecting young people to sources of information and advice which lack credibility
It also wants a pilot of an NHS “online 111” service in selected local authority areas to proactively work across platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram and through forums, to respond to mental health concerns.
RSA researcher Tom Harrison said: “Our study estimates through analysing conversations online that 134,000 young people looked online to access mental health support last year – much of which came from supporting one another.
“However, a culture of openness among young people can lead us to being hostages to fortune as more awareness leads to more conversations that risk confusing and misdirecting young people to sources of information and advice which lack credibility.
“But social media is not only a platform for people to access mental health services – increasingly it appears to be a driver of ill-health in itself.
“This places a moral duty on still commonly-used platforms like Instagram and Facebook to help cash-strapped mental health providers reach the people who will benefit the most from professional advice and support.
“We also argue strongly that this would need to be matched with rapid and tangible improvements to access to treatment for young people.”
Dr Louise Theodosiou from the Royal College of Psychiatrists said: “Online platforms can be places where young people are able to speak openly about their unmet mental health needs in a way that they may not feel comfortable doing offline.
“But the high number of young people discussing such things as suicide online shows there is clearly an unmet need for services to work creatively with online providers to ensure young people know how to access professional help.
“We also have a lot of work to do in understanding the words young people use to describe their wellbeing needs.
“Understanding the meaning behind words such as ‘stress’, ‘tired’ and ‘help’ used by young men online could be key to this.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here