Regular Ypulse readers may remember way back when I posted about developing some sort of widget or application that would provide mental health/wellness resources to teens where they are spending lots of time hanging out (i.e. social networks). The idea is that with so many young people sharing so much of their lives online, there is an opportunity to bring resources to them vs. forcing them to find one of the hundreds of amazing resource sites on the web.

I have been working with my friends at ISIS and YouthNoise for the past several weeks on turning this idea into a funding proposal so we can actually build and promote this application. The first step in our process was to do a bit of research that would inform the validity, direction and design of our application. For this, I contacted my friends at Peanut Labs to help us distribute a survey across popular social networking sites. We wanted to know what mental health/wellness issues were most urgent to youth, find out how they are accessing resources now and what to keep in mind when designing a new resource.

Here are some quick highlights from our research (the full .pdf report is online at ISIS). The press release is online here:

- More than 50% of young people aged 13 to 24 are accessing health and wellness information on the Internet

- Of the respondents who said they use the Web for information about health and wellness, they most often cited WebMD (15.1%) as their source, seconded by search engines.

- Seventeen percent (17%) of the group visited online confessional sites or message boards to share something personal, 87% of whom reported positive experiences.

- Respondents across all ages, genders and race/ethnicities consistently identified STDs/HIV and drugs/substance abuse as their top health concerns. Issues related to the internet, such as cyber-bullying were mentioned, but with far less frequency.

When asked to contribute suggestions for websites geared towards youth mental health and wellness, youth stressed the importance of marketing its availability widely. Safety and anonymity were also important, followed by ease of use. Responses suggest sites are most helpful when they include both accurate, accessible information and a community where users can interact and obtain personal support from both peers and professionals. An ideal site would, of course, also be fun and interactive.

We are making the report available with the hope that what we found may be helpful to other organizations trying to reach youth around these issues.

Our next steps are finalizing our funding proposal for a pilot of our application. We will design it for both Facebook and MySpace/Open Social and hope to include links and resource content on a bunch of issues from organizations already doing great work. The app will be fun, completely anonymous and viral – think Group Hug with resources and peer + professional moderated message boards. If any readers work for foundations who might be interested in helping us get it off the ground or would like a proposal, email me. It will be a non-profit enterprise.

I also have to thank my husband, Jon Belford, who is completing his doctorate in psychology, for helping us sift through the data and write a coherent report.

Categorized under: Youth Marketing

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