Shout's clinically-led service

The service is proven to reach new audiences who prefer to text and helps to take pressure off local crisis phone lines and face-to-face services. Using technology, Shout is accessible by communities across the length and breadth of the UK, reaching underserved populations who would not otherwise have a means of support.

In Shout’s four years of existence, we have scaled our service to take over 2.8m conversations with more than 900,000 children, young people and adults who have needed immediate mental health support. As a digital service, the anonymised Shout dataset gives unique insight into UK mental health trends.

Conversations with Shout's clinically-led service are taken by mental health professionals, overseen by Clinical Supervisors. Commissioning Shout enables ICBs to deliver against NHSE advisory specifications for implementation of 24/7 crisis text message services, integrated with their local services, including 111 phone service provision.

NHS England recommends that the 24/7 crisis text service delivered by ICBs is integrated with their local services. This is something that Shout is able to facilitate, in order to provide your local population with efficient and effective pathways for support.

We can offer this in two ways:

1. Integration with your NHS 111 service: We will work with your ICB and 111 provider so that when callers dial 111 and choose Option 2 for Mental Health, they can then choose whether to speak to someone on the phone, or have a text conversation instead.
   
2. Integration with local services: Shout’s mental health professionals can directly signpost texters to appropriate local services, to give them access to ongoing support and care. We will work with your ICB to understand your local crisis services and the thresholds for direct signposting to them. We will work to give people who have taken the first steps to seek help via text message the confidence and information they need to access additional local services. The texter will have a record of their Shout conversation on their phone, along with any safety plans created, should they want to share this with local support services, with no need to retell their story.