Support at Scale: Our Impact 2024 - 2025 | Mental Health Innovations

HRH The Prince of Wales with Mental Health Advocate Ben West and YAB member Amelia

This year has been one of our most exciting yet, as we merged with The Mix and scaled our digital offering to provide support for thousands more children and young people across the UK.

As we come to the end of delivery of our 2022-2025 strategy, we’ve welcomed in a new chapter for Mental Health Innovations and with it significant advancements in the digital support we provide for the nation.

Read on to find out more about our impact.

Who we are

2024-25 has been one of our most exciting yet, as we scaled our digital offering to provide support for thousands more children and young people.

Mental Health Innovations now sits as a parent charity to two digital services aimed at providing an ecosystem of support for people across the UK. Through these sister services - Shout and The Mix - we provide free, scalable online tools, resources and crisis support to improve mental health and wellbeing. Whatever challenges someone is facing, we’re here to ensure they don’t have to face it alone.

Underpinning the support we provide is our unparalleled database and real-time insights that enable us to inform, inspire and ignite change to transform the mental health of the nation. Our data and research team are delivering these trends and learnings back into the sector, working with Government and mental health stakeholders such as the Department of Health and Social Care in delivering the Suicide Prevention Strategy for England.

Our team of clinicians, who are based both in the UK and New Zealand in order to provide clinical supervision and expertise around the clock, grew to 50 in number. We are proud to place lived experience at the heart of what we do to help shape our services and inform our organisational development. This year we’ve expanded our service user voice work by launching a Shout Service User Voice Group (SUVG) and integrating a Youth Voice Network, made up of our Youth Advisory Board and other groups such as our Community Connectors and Communications Committee. We’re making sure that these voices are being heard, not only in their feedback but at key events such as our report launch for ‘Help is just a text away: accessing and scaling mental health support through Shout’s digital service’

“You saved my life last night and I couldn’t be more grateful. The understanding and compassion you showed me was more than I could have asked for.”

Shout texter

Our strategic priorities

1. Accessible, scalable support

Deliver free, 24/7 mental health support through high quality services, built upon a sustainable financial foundation, with targeted reach into diverse groups.

Strategic Priority One
Strategic Priority Two

2. Informing the future of mental health support

Deliver data and clinical insights that will support and enhance Mental Health Innovation’s services, engage and influence external audiences, inform new product development and advance collective knowledge in addressing mental health problems.
3. Human-centred approach

We support volunteer wellbeing and put our service users at the heart of everything we do, in order to build upon the lived experience of those who have experienced mental health issues.

Strategic Priority Three
Strategic Priority Four

4. Digital Innovation

Building on our clinical expertise, data insights and partnerships, to develop new innovative products and services to meet underserved mental health needs within the UK. Three key categories are Shout service integrations, training and new products and services.

“The Mix has been the most helpful thing for my wellbeing besides taking medication. Being able to connect with people and make friends online - but safely - has truly helped me so much.”

The Mix Group Chat User

Our year at a glance

Scaling support for young people

We merged with The Mix in an exciting move to enable us to scale digital early intervention and crisis support for children and young people across the UK

A Royal visit

HRH The Prince of Wales met our new Youth Advisory Board and heard about how our merger was enabling us to build an unparalleled dataset into the mental health of the UK population, during an event with Professor the Lord Ara Darzi and senior business leaders.

A fresh brand identity

We launched a fresh brand identity for Mental Health Innovations to take us into our next phase of delivering against new strategic objectives and priorities.

The Shout text service

Took 585,988 with 239,256 people on our Shout text support service.

53 seconds

How often someone reached out to Shout; 1 in 3 of those people were experiencing suicidal thoughts.

One million people

Visited The Mix’s website seeking information to support their mental health.

Supporting prisoners

We rolled out our text support to two more prisons in the UK.

164,000 volunteering hours

Nearly 4,000 volunteers gave more than 164,000 hours of their time

Round the clock support

We provided 24/7 support, 365 days a year for children, young people and adults.

Making sure we are there for anyone who needs us.

Every 53 seconds, someone reaches out to Shout for a conversation that might just save their life, in fact, one in three people who texts Shout is having suicidal thoughts. In 2024/25, Shout Volunteers took more than half a million conversations with nearly a quarter of a million people. Collectively, they gave 164,000 hours of their time to listen without judgement and help guide people from crisis to calm. Our volunteers are often the first person many of the people who text us have reached out to about how they are feeling.

Leanne's Story

‘I first texted Shout when I was experiencing intrusive suicidal thoughts following the birth of my daughter. I found the idea of speaking out about how I was feeling impossible at the time.

For me, Shout was helpful because it allowed me to take that first step in a way that felt helpful to me.

To any mums who are struggling at the moment, I would definitely say reach out to Shout as a first step. It’s a safe way to speak to someone about how you are feeling and they can help you put a plan in place to seek further support.’

Read Leanne's story

Supporting people who are suicidal

Through our campaigns and content, we regularly raise awareness of how to support someone who is experiencing suicidal thoughts and ideation, and how to get the support they deserve.

In August 2024, we published the results of our ‘Make A Connection’ awareness campaign with Network Rail, which was found to have led to a 32% decrease in the number of vulnerable people presenting on the railway, across the 10 target campaign locations, resulting in a significant saving of lives and distress to individuals, families, railway workers and communities.

On 10 September 2024, we marked World Suicide Prevention Day with a webinar hosted by our Clinical Director Sarah Kendrick, highlighting that Shout is there for anyone who needs it, as well as using the training we provide as the basis to deliver a webinar to more than 400 people on how to support someone who is suicidal.

Shining the spotlight on suicide prevention

In March 2025, Shout Volunteer and mental health advocate Ben West was joined by our CEO Victoria Hornby on the BBC Breakfast sofa, to share his experience of losing his brother Sam to suicide and the positive experience becoming a Shout Volunteer has provided him with to help others who might be struggling. In Ben’s words: "Being a volunteer with Shout has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life."

Supporting children and young people

In 2024/5, we supported 139,000 people aged 25 and under who contacted Shout, while The Mix supported 155,000 under-25s through its online counselling, chatbot and community discussion boards.

A group of young school children sit in a circle talking to each other about mental wellbeing

"My volunteer was so helpful, guiding me and listening tentatively and recommending how to get some further help for myself."

Feedback from a Shout texter, aged 14-17

My name is Sam, and I’m 16 years old. I’ve faced a lot of challenges with my mental health - anorexia, depression, anxiety and PTSD. While getting therapy through CAMHS, my mental health practitioner suggested The Mix as extra support. It’s been a vital resource for me ever since.
The discussion boards are like a safety net. No matter the time of day, I can write about my thoughts, knowing someone will respond and truly care. Whether it’s advice or just someone to listen, the community is always there. I’ve even started helping others, which has given me a new sense of purpose.
If you’re reading this and feeling overwhelmed, know that you’re not alone. At The Mix, you’ll find a judgment-free space where people care.

Sam, The Mix beneficiary

Following our merger with The Mix, we announced a new Youth Advisory Board, whose role is to ensure that young people’s voices are at the centre of shaping mental health support and new tools, products and services. This includes the development of exciting new products such as self-paced learning tools and peer chat service, supporting early intervention and giving young people the resources to support their own wellbeing.

We launched our new podcast The Mix Six, focusing on the issues affecting young people and bringing them stories and inspiration from the likes of mental health advocates Joe Wicks, Owen Wood and Charlie Craggs.

We worked in partnership with organisations that are helping support young people including The Black Curriculum, Autism Education Trust, Boys Get Sad Too, Sober Girl Society, SH:24, UniDays, Dear Evan Hansen, Amy Winehouse Foundation, Kent Refugee Action Network, Festival Republic, Hanx, and for Children’s Mental Health Week we spent time with some incredible Year Six students talking about the issues that affect them and creative ideas on how to care for your mind.

Our work with Children in Need was highlighted on their annual BBC One show, with Shout Volunteer Laurie talking about what it’s like to support children and young people through our Shout text service. Watch her segment below:

Supporting young people with Lenovo and AI

In May 2024 we partnered with technology company Lenovo to help expand young people’s access to Shout as part of its ‘Meet Your Digital Self’ project, which used smart technology and AI to find ways to address the challenges young people face when living different lives in the real world versus online. The campaign video has had more than 3.6 million views on YouTube.

Find out more about 'Meet your digital self'

Supporting positive conversations with gaming

In November, we teamed up with Harry’s to hold Talk Squad gaming sessions, where young people had the chance to speak confidentially to one of Shout’s mental health professionals while playing a video game. Gaming influencers including bateson87, Jaelee and JaackMaate launched the project on a Twitch live stream, with more than 50 people signing up to a session, the majority of which told us it was the first time they’d reached out for mental health support.

60% of those who booked a session said they felt more comfortable talking while gaming.

Breaking down the stigma with Hurt to Healing

We became an official partner of the Hurt to Healing podcast. Hosted by mental health advocate Pandora Morris, it aims at breaking down the stigma around mental health issues ranging from PTSD to anxiety, imposter syndrome to addiction.

Supporting parents and children with online harms

To mark Safer Internet Day in February 2025, we worked with our partner Sony Interactive Entertainment to provide tips and advice on how to support young people’s wellbeing online.

Supporting the prison service

Following a successful pilot project with the Serco Justice and Immigration business unit at HMP Thameside in 2023, we rolled out the Shout text service to HMP Doncaster in November 2024 and HMP Fosseway in February 2025.

While listening schemes are already embedded in prisons - such as through support from the Samaritans - it was recognised that there was scope to further complement existing support through digital means, particularly for people under the age of 35 who might feel more comfortable messaging than talking on the phone.

From the conversations taken with prisoners, we’ve seen the following:

67%

found their conversation helpful
41%

felt calmer
31%

felt they could work out their problems better after contacting us

Find out more about our work with Serco

An illustrated image of the front cover of a digital coping skills booklet

As part of our commitment to support people in prison, we also worked with prisoners to create a bespoke coping skills booklet in a graphic novel format, that could be used to help support them to develop healthy coping skills. The booklet was rolled out to in-cell apps in February 2025 to combine educational and skills development in an accessible style.

We’re looking forward to continuing to support the prisoner population through the rollout of the service at more prisons across the UK.

The person who just spoke to me was very helpful and was able to help with my problems, I know the Shout app will always be available to me when I need it.

Prisoner feedback

Providing key data and clinical insights to advance collective knowledge in tackling mental health problems.

Our data and research team works with academic partners to deliver insight to the wider mental health sector and government stakeholders to help inform evidence-based decision making. The team also secures grants to help significantly enhance our data capabilities - including a significant commitment of more than £2 million across three years from the Jensen and Lori Huang Foundation - scale our technology and build upon our unique, UK-wide dataset on mental health to bring real-time, data-driven insight to the sector at an unprecedented scale.

Addressing unmet mental health needs in the sector

Through our partnership with Imperial College London, to mark World Mental Health Day in October 2024 we released the first in a series of reports to highlight how the Shout text service is addressing an unmet need in the mental health

sector. Joined by government and NHS representatives, including NHS England’s Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity Dr Adrian James, Minister for Mental Health Baroness Merron, and Professor The Lord Ara Darzi from the Institute of Global Health Innovation, the launch highlighted the accessibility and 24/7 availability of Shout’s text support for UK audiences.

Representatives from our Service User Voice Group also attended the event and shared their experiences of using Shout to support their mental health.

CEO of Mental Health Innovations Victoria Hornby, NHS England’s Medical Director for Mental Health and Neurodiversity Dr Adrian James, Minister for Mental Health Baroness Merron, Service Voice User Group member Ali and Professor Lord Ara Darzi. © Rolando

Working with Government to support suicide prevention

We remain committed to using our data insights to help inform others working in suicide prevention.

Through membership of their expert advisory groups, we are now focused on supporting the Department of Health and Social Care in delivering the Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, by sharing real-time data insights about suicide-related trends, particularly amongst groups identified as high-risk in the strategy, including children and young people, people who have self-harmed, autistic people, and pregnant women and new mothers.

Supporting people with the cost of living crisis

As part of our three-year partnership with the Aviva Foundation, in September 2024 we began offering support for anyone who is struggling with the complex issues that have arisen as a result of the crisis, as well as providing signposting to PayPlan for anyone who texted Shout about financial difficulties.

Our data insights team provided a deep dive into our anonymised dataset to explore the issues people were facing with the Cost of Living, which we surfaced in a report, and we worked with the Aviva Foundation to develop a bespoke keyword ‘REFRESH’ for people struggling with financial difficulties.

Thank you for listening and for your advice, was nice just getting everything out into the open for the first time in years, you were so kind and patient with me.

Feedback from a Shout texter messaging about financial difficulties

Supporting disabled people with travel

In May 2024, with funding from the Motability Foundation, we released a research report exploring the challenges disabled people face when travelling. Drawing on key insights from our Shout text conversations, our data team conducted in-depth research to better understand the mental health implications of these experiences. In conjunction, our Clinical Advisor, Dr Fiona Pienaar, developed a comprehensive literature review. Together, these shaped a report focused on how to best support the mental wellbeing of disabled travellers. As a result, we introduced the keyword ‘JOURNEY for people struggling to access immediate mental health support when travelling.

Exploring trends into young people's mental health

In December 2024, we published The Mix’s Helpline report, showcasing our unparalleled data insights into young people’s mental health. The report draws on six years of helpline data, uncovering crucial trends into young people’s mental health against the backdrop of unprecedented challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis to reveal that the need for accessible, digital, early-intervention support has never been greater.

Sophie was overwhelmed by intrusive thoughts, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation when she texted Shout. She had been afraid her thoughts would get the better of her if she didn’t speak to someone, but she was worried she would scare her friends and family if she opened up to them, and didn’t want to be a burden. She said reaching out to Shout was one of the easiest forms of support she’s ever accessed, and writing out her thoughts to someone on the other end of the phone helped her take the next steps to getting the long-term support she needed.

"I knew sharing what I was going through would help release some of the pressure I was putting on myself. The Shout Volunteer I spoke to gave me that.

Just being able to share what I was experiencing provided me with the relief and reassurance I was desperately looking for." - Sophie

Sophie's story

Keeping people at the heart of what we do

While the use of technology enables us to scale our mental health support, it’s people who help us to power it. We currently have more than 3,800 active Shout Volunteers who are trained to assess risk, de-escalate a crisis and listen and support people without judgement. For many of the people who volunteer for us, volunteering has become so much more than that; it provides an online community, a chance to make a difference and connect with others, and a pathway into studying and new career paths.

The impact of digital volunteering

In September 2024, we published a global report in conjunction with our three international digital textline partners from the US, Canada and Ireland, revealing the collective impact of our 100,000 digital volunteers and highlighting the role volunteers play in their wider communities and society.

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 selfconfidence since starting volunteering

"Being a volunteer has changed my life. It has given me a holistic new perspective on how to approach people in crisis and I have learned to be more compassionate towards others’ experiences."

Shout Volunteer

Putting lived experience at the centre of service design

Our Service User Voice Group (SUVG), Youth Voice programme and Youth Advisory Board (YAB) both play a key role in ensuring that people with lived experience have their voices heard and are at the heart of how services are designed.

In March 2025, our YAB had the opportunity to speak to The Prince of Wales about the key role that young people play in the design, co-creation and delivery of our youth services, and the multitude of opportunities they have to get involved, be part of a supportive community and gain valuable skills.

Members of our Youth Advisory Board and Mental Health Advocate Ben West meet The Prince of Wales.

Meet our Youth Advisory Board and find out more about their backgrounds, interests and experience in mental health.

Cuan's volunteering story

Cuan started out as a Shout Volunteer and went on to join our staff team as a Clinical Practitioner. She lives with hypermobility, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, fibromyalgia and complex PTSD. The remote and flexible nature of the Shout volunteering opportunity makes it perfect for her so that she can fit it around her symptoms, or take a break when needed.

“Living with multiple chronic health conditions definitely comes with challenges on a daily basis. However, Shout has always been incredibly understanding and reassuring when I’ve needed to take some time out to focus on my health. And when I’ve returned I’ve always been met with a warm welcome and appreciation for being back on the platform to support texters again. Being able to support people with their mental health means everything to me, because people deserve to feel heard, understood and supported, whatever they may be struggling with.”

Our Youth Voice programme

Our Youth Voice programme puts young people at the heart of change; co-designing, creating and shaping the services that impact them most. Given that The Mix is for people aged 25 and under, and 60% of the people who text Shout are also under 25, our Youth Voice programme is an essential part of how we keep our services relevant and useful to them.

We have a number of Youth Voice groups that work to support different organisational goals as follows:

Youth Advisory Board

These young people work with our board of trustees and senior management team to help set the direction of the charity.

Communications Committee

Our amazing Communications Committee helps us produce youth-led articles and videos on our social platforms, as well as co-designing seasonal campaigns.

Services Innovator Committee

Made up of young people with experiences of using digital services, the Services Innovator Committee shapes all our digital services with a particular focus on counselling, safeguarding, and our upcoming Peer Chat Service.

Community Connectors
The genius behind our online community, our Community Connectors do everything from shaping guidelines to planning out our Christmas activities.

Pod Squad

After launching the Mix Six podcast, we’re training young people in writing, editing, and public speaking, with the aim for it to be entirely Youth Led.

Opportunity Network

For those who don’t want to commit long- term, we offer time-limited projects through our Opportunity Network. In October 2024, we launched a longer term project to help with the redesign of our Mix website and the development of our new self-paced learning modules LifeSkills, to one-off training sessions for job-seeking and design.

Youth Voice stats

250

young people in our Youth Voice Network
90%

of members say it exceeded expectations
150

events are run for young people every year

Find out more about Youth Voice

Through our merger with The Mix, we’ve been able to significantly drive forwards our mission of transforming the mental health of the nation through digital innovation in the form of new products and services to support children and young people at scale, and will be welcoming the rollout of a new digital ecosystem to provide content, community, counselling and crisis support. This will include self-paced learning modules and the UK’s first national peer chat service, designed with young people, for young people.

Using our AI capabilities, we’ve developed better methods to support volunteers in taking conversations on the Shout platform, helping them build their confidence and skills. We developed a generative AI chatbot that has been trained on our anonymised Shout dataset to simulate Shout conversations, which volunteers can use during their training to hone their skills.

The feedback from the Shout team and the AI conversation simulator tested me and pushed my limits by preparing me for real-life conversations with texters.

Shout Volunteer feedback

In 2024 we continued our work with a number of NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across the UK to provide immediate crisis support alongside traditional services and support NHS England’s requirement for a text-based service in every English region. We’re currently working with nine ICBs, including Cambridge and Peterborough, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, Sussex, North East and North Cumbria, South Yorkshire, Herefordshire & Worcestershire with more to come later in 2025.

Thank you for being with me when I was feeling overwhelmed and emotionally drained. You made me feel heard and not alone.

Texter using the ‘SUSSEX’ keyword

The people who helped us be the difference

Thank you to all of our supporters who helped us be there 24/7 for so many people who needed us this year. In what has been a challenging year, your generosity has shone through. Here’s a snapshot of the incredible ways you’ve made a difference.

We had an amazing 180 public fundraisers and individual givers raising more than £100,000, helping to power our vital services and be there for thousands of people.

Thank you to our Patron Will Young for his continued support, and for shining a spotlight on mental health.

Harry's Flat White x Starbucks

Kindness was the goal of this campaign, which aimed to highlight the importance of meaningful connections to help combat loneliness and boost our wellbeing. With the premise of kicking off a conversation over coffee, the Harry Kane Foundation and Starbucks released a brand new cup of coffee, the ‘Harry’s Flat White’, aimed at getting people talking to one another, while also supporting Shout with a 25p donation per cup sold. To support the campaign aims, we delivered training to Starbucks staff on how to build meaningful connections, as well as providing tips from our clinicians on how to start a conversation about mental health.

Move for Mental Health

In April 2024 we launched our Move for Mental Health campaign aimed to get the nation moving, while raising vital funds for Shout. Volunteers, fundraisers and supporters including our Patron Will Young, Harry Kane and celebrities Mollie Pearce and Chloe Birch shared how movement helps their mental health, inspiring others to get involved. 424 people supported the campaign, raising a total of £11,131 (including Gift Aid).

Spreading Christmas Cheer

We welcomed volunteers from our partners Selfridges, The Restaurant Group, wagamama and Bank of England to our offices to help us celebrate the incredible volunteers who give their time keeping our services running over Christmas and learn more about what we do.

The Big Give

In 2024’s Big Give Christmas campaign, our amazing supporters raised a total of £77,574: enough to cover the cost of 7,757 conversations with children, young people and adults in crisis, or to cover the cost of 1,551 counselling sessions through The Mix; designed to help young people build resilience and coping skills.

Our incredible fundraisers

"I know texters have to be so brave to reach out to us when life is challenging, and abseiling the Spinnaker tower really helped me experience bravery. My bravery is nothing compared to theirs, but it gave me an insight."

Fundraiser Sam

Our funders

Thank you to the Jensen and Lori Huang Foundation, Google.org, the Fidelity Foundation and Amazon Web Services for supporting our data insights and research work.

Thank you to the funders, donors and partners who have made our work possible this year, including those who wish to remain anonymous.

Selfridges
Bank of England
Bloomberg
Harry’s
Headstock
MS Amlin
The George (part of JKS Restaurants)
Wagamama
The Restaurant Group
The Harry Kane Foundation
JD Foundation
Toms
Experian
Schuh
Aviva Foundation
Children in Need
CHK Foundation
City Bridge Foundation
The Clothworkers Foundation
National Lottery Community Fund
Fidelity Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation
Hiscox Foundation
Julia Rausing Trust
Motability Foundation
NFU Mutual
Pears Foundation
Prudence Trust
St James Place
The Stone Family Foundation
JD Foundation
Playtech
Lenovo
Hinge

"I hope you know that you may have saved my life today and I want to thank you so much."

under-13 Shout texter