Kooth: July Newsletter

Kooth is available throughout the summer holidays - our professional mental health practitioners support young people with whatever’s on their mind, from loneliness, family or friendship issues, to body image, self harm or suicidal thoughts.

This summer we’re also running a campaign called Go Somewhere Good! Please let your young people know! explore.kooth.com/go-somewhere-good

We’re sharing inspiring ideas of good places and things to do over the holiday. Everyone who votes for their favourite idea has the chance to win a prize that might give young people an alternative to spending too much time on their phone - prizes include skateboards, frisbees and £50 book vouchers.

For families, many of whom can’t afford to take their children on holiday or to take time off work all summer, we have some resources for you to share:

• Free KoothTalks webinars “Parenting pressures during the summer holiday and how we can help” - here’s the booking form <https://docs.google.com/forms>  for you to email to parents
• Activity sheets <https://cloud.brandmaster.com>  to supplement all the good ideas of things to do that are available on Kooth.

Improvements to our risk assessment and management of users:

Kooth has always prioritised safety, putting risk and safeguarding at the heart of our work while aligning our approach to the latest clinical guidance. Our previous approach to assigning and monitoring risk leaned more towards a predictive process.

Red - Amber - Green ratings were used to help prioritise the care of those coming to us for support (for example: a user assessed as ‘red risk’ would be prioritised for 1:1 support). To ensure we are aligned with the latest NICE guidance and the wider evidence base around digital mental health risk assessment, in late 2023 Kooth began to move towards a more preventative and dynamic approach.

The new framework was implemented in May 2024. Over June and July 2024 we will implement assurance measures to test the effectiveness of the new framework and are working on a more sophisticated reporting dashboard for risk management metrics.

The new framework was implemented in May 2024. Over June and July 2024 we will implement assurance measures to test the effectiveness of the new framework and are working on a more sophisticated reporting dashboard for risk management metrics.

If you’d like to find out more or discuss our improvements please email [email protected] and reference this article . 

 

Coming up in September

A nationwide competition to find the KOOTH FUTURE COUNCIL – a unique opportunity for 16–18-year-olds to win a place on our new youth-powered content team. Winners will get the chance to learn and collaborate with talent from the creative arts, turn their ideas into positive mental health action for young people across the UK, AND learn vocational skills that look great on a college application, CV or UCAS form.

Stay tuned for more information on how your students can enter this creative competition at the start of the new school year!

Support for students experiencing anxiety

We’ll be offering online sessions around anxiety management - especially helpful for new Year 7s and those entering exam years:

• For young people (live-streaming to your classroom): KoothKlass: Managing anxiety Book your free spaces <https://share.hsforms.com>
• For education staff:  KoothTalks training: Helping your students manage anxiety Book your free spaces <https://share.hsforms.com>
• For families: KoothTalks training: Helping your child manage anxiety Booking form here <https://share.hsforms.com>  (please email to all parents and carers)

You can also pre-book an in-person or online Kooth staff training session. Let us know what date you would like me to visit please fill in this form HERE <https://forms>

New Kooth FAQ

We have developed a new FAQ for anyone with a burning question about Kooth! The FAQ covers everything you ever wanted to know about us, from our clinical and safeguarding approach and features on our platforms, to how we align with the Online Safety Act.

The Kooth FAQ <https://koothplc.com>

We want to hear from you!

We’d love to get your feedback on our monthly newsletters and how we can improve them to suit your needs - please complete our short survey <https://docs.google.com/forms>  to share your thoughts.

Know a young person who’s loved Kooth? Have you had a Kooth engagement delivered in your setting recently via our Engagement Team? Why not let others know!

If you know a child or young person who has had a great experience on Kooth or recently had a digital or in- person engagement delivered by one of our Engagement Leads, why not let others know about it.

By leaving a review, you can:

• Let other parents, carers, teachers, and mental health professionals know where they can signpost children and young people to if they’re struggling with their mental health and wellbeing.
• Share what they’ve found especially helpful on the Kooth site, or the features you like the sound of (whether it’s journals, peer support, goal settings, articles, activities, weekly chats or something else entirely).
• Make someone’s day by giving a shout out to one of the Kooth team!

Share your review <https://uk.trustpilot.com/evaluate/kooth.com>

• Please note, you need to be 18 and over to leave a review and we would ask you not to share Kooth usernames or specific details to ensure anonymity of Kooth users