Joinedup online support for young people

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• Joined-up online support for young people
• A public/private partnership between Xenzone
  Stockport Council
• Elaine Bousfield

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Context Objectives

• 4.5 years ago and Xenzone and Stockport Council
  created a service called Kooth
• Reasons for undertaking the project
• high numbers of looked after children
• long waiting lists for therapeutic services
• high thresholds for family support services
• the provision and uptake of counselling services
  by young men was poor
• Xenzone was already delivering online counselling
  services and 35 of our work was with people
  below the age of 18
• Kooth was to deliver a fast response to requests
  for support with immediate access to an outreach
  service if needed

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Context Objectives

• Kooth was planned so that it met the objectives
  of the Governments Every Child Matters programme
  
• At the outset, the plan was to measure
• the extent to which young people were being
  prevented from entering the Looked After care
  system
• the numbers and the mix of young people using the
  service
• the extent to which they were using the
  counselling aspect of the service
• what the presenting issues were

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How we did it

• Kooth.com was originally funded by the then
  Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Communities
  and Local Government) as an Invest To Save
  initiative in late 2003 now live in 8 LA areas
• Over the years the service has evolved to meet
  the changing requirements of the service
  commissioners and the changing needs and
  preferences of the young people who use the
  service
• Partners have played a crucial role in growing
  the service

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Young People and the Internet

• Young people see the Internet as their medium

• Take services to where young people are - dont
  expect them to come to you
• They dont remember life before the Internet
• Crazy not to put services online!

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Model of the Kooth Service
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Kooth is easy to use
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The Kooth website
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Chat room counselling on Kooth
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Referral pathways
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Kooth is growing

• We are live in Stockport, Cheshire, Knowsley,
  Wigan, Warrington, St Helens, Wirral and
  Warwickshire
• From October 2008 - Blaenau-Gwent and Blackburn
  Darwen
• There is interest from Blackpool, Powys,
  Caerphilly, Rochdale, Lancashire CAMHS
  partnership (3 PCTs) and Norwich
• Ambition to roll out Kooth regionally and then
  nationally

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Do young people use Kooth?

• 3,269 new users of Kooth between August 2007 and
  March 2008
• 9,200 young people are registered on Kooth
• 27 are young men and 73 young women
• Peak age of new users is 13 to 16 year olds
• 43 heard about Kooth via school
• 9 of new users are non-white

Yes!
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Achievements

• In its first two years, Kooth referred 38 young
  people into outreach teams - intensive support
  was put in place and savings of over 800,000
  were made
• Between August 2007 and March 2008, 792 young
  people used chat counselling and 1,012 used
  private messaging counselling

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Achievements

• In quarter-ended December 2007 young people spent
  2,532 hours logged into Kooth, in quarter-ended
  March 2008 it was 3,315 hours, and in
  quarter-ended June 2008 it was 4,200 hours
• Multi-agency working we have 22 non-Kooth staff
  from a variety of agencies working on the service

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Who uses Kooth?

• Young people across the tiers - Kooth
  successfully manages to be a tier one (universal
  access) and tier two service
• It also provides support to young people at tier
  three around 23 of Kooth users have been
  through CAMHs, are using CAMHs services or are on
  the waiting list
• Transition - 33 of young people using Kooth fall
  into the 16-19 age bracket

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Feedback from young people

• Sent By XstaceyXFrom Location CheshireDate
  Sent 28 February 2008Rating 10Comments i
  think that the people on here are amazing to talk
  to they help you with all of your problems and it
  is better over the internet than on the phone it
  is easier to talk and this site is a great idea.
  XstaceyX

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St Helens

• Sent By sk8ergalFrom Location St HelensDate
  Sent 31 March 2008Rating 10Comments i love
  kooth. The counsellors are sooo nice, caring and
  understanding. It always helps to know someone
  cares and wants to help

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Stockport

• Sent By JenEyahFrom Location StockportDate
  Sent 26 March 2008Rating 10Comments i think
  its fab you can talk to your councellor from your
  house its easier and more comfortable and my
  councellor is so so so so so so nice.

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Warrington

• Sent By loserFrom Location WarringtonDate
  Sent 30 March 2008Rating 10Comments brillfab
• great
• useful
• constructive

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Wigan

• Sent By sam123From Location WiganDate Sent
  10 March 2008Rating 10Comments i like about
  it that all the people are willing to help you
  and give you advise on it and they make you so
  wellcoming to kooth i really like comming on this
  beause when i am very lonely a meber talks to me
  on it then they dont make lonely then i feel
  better in myself ans i have used some advise of
  this and it has wored eg tell ateacher tell
  aparent tell the head or year of house i realy
  tlike kooth i am somew times on it when i havge
  the time to come on it and spend time on it i
  like all the staff they seem realy lovely perople
  hope you write back to me soon bye for know
  sam123xx want a lovely site to come on ?

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Kooth a truly transformational service

• Kooth has broken the stigma surrounding mental
  and emotional health
• Kooth has enabled young people to access support
  via their preferred medium
• 89 of Kooth users say they prefer online
  counselling to telephone support
• Kooth has become a valuable complement and backup
  to existing statutory services such as CAHMS

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Kooth a truly transformational service

• Kooth has reached very vulnerable young people
  who would never has accessed face-to-face
  services
• Kooth has literally saved lives