At Thursday’s eMHIC Congress in Ottawa, Mental Health Innovations, the charity behind Shout’s text messaging support service, and three international digital textline partners from the US, Canada and Ireland, released a report revealing the impact of our combined 100,000 digital volunteers.
‘The impact of online crisis volunteers’ details how our mental health volunteers, operating through a shared technology platform, are making significant inroads in responding to the growing need for global mental health support. Working to our unique, online volunteer model, Shout Volunteers and their counterparts from our global affiliate partners, gain significant mental health skills. They use these not only to help our beneficiaries, but also to deploy in their wider communities, channel into education, new careers and the mental health workforce, and even to forge an impact on broader society.
Mental Health Innovations is a digital charity that harnesses the power of technology to create innovative solutions that address mental health challenges. Our service Shout is the UK’s only free, confidential, 24/7 text messaging service for anyone who is struggling to cope. The report shows Shout’s volunteering experience to have a unique, cascading effect across multiple spheres. UK-specific volunteering data shows the following outcomes:
Impact on those in urgent need of mental health support:
Since launch in 2019, Shout has trained more than 14,000 volunteers, who have taken 2.7 million conversations with people seeking urgent help with their mental health, and now take over 2,000 potentially life-saving conversations every single day.
- 82% of those seeking support said they found their conversation helpful
- 63% agreed they felt more calm following the conversation
Development of skills:
Through their training and interactions with texters and clinical supervisors, Shout Volunteers develop skills and knowledge that help their own personal growth and development:
- 100% say their active listening and empathy skills have improved
- 99% of Shout Volunteers say their sense of compassion has grown
- 96% say volunteering helped them build personal resilience and practice self-care
- 95% have grown in self-confidence since starting volunteering
- 80% feel less anxious following volunteering, compared to before
Education and employment impact:
Shout volunteering influences education and career pathways and contributes to the growth of the mental health workforce, supporting people, particularly young volunteers aged under 25, to find and retain employment:
- 85% of Shout Volunteers say volunteering makes them want to work in a field where they can help people (96% of under 25-year-olds)
- 36% say it has helped them get into an educational or training programme (48% of under 25-year-olds)
- 40% say it has helped them to secure employment (61% of under 25-year-olds)
- 52% say it has inspired them to change careers
Community capacity and societal connection:
Shout Volunteers actively apply the skills and knowledge they acquire with their friends, families, and work colleagues, building community capacity. Moreover, the experience contributes to tackling mental health stereotypes and influencing positive social connection, resilience and change:
- 100% say they have acquired mental health knowledge and skills they can apply to life beyond Shout
- 90% of Shout Volunteers feel more connected to others
- 84% say their relationships with friends and families have been strengthened
- 98% say their ability to understand diverse perspectives has deepened
Victoria Hornby OBE, CEO of Mental Health Innovations said: “Together with our global partners we are leveraging the benefits of a shared model and sophisticated digital platform to tackle mental health crises at scale, producing data and information to share our learnings, and effectively delivering one of the largest mental health volunteer training programs in the world.
Shout’s digital volunteer experience brings widespread, positive benefits and has been proven to impact not only the lives of our texters, but also to bring benefits to our volunteers in terms of their own wellbeing and skills development. They take these skills into the wider community, adding capacity to the mental health workforce and supporting societal resilience.”
