Salhi et al

This report provides a timely look at Kooth, bridging insights from young people, from professionals who signpost or refer to Kooth, and from the routinely collected data from the service as a whole. The integration between commissioned, digital services alongside on-the-ground services is now more important than ever, and this report highlights Kooth’s mechanisms to enhance reach and engagement from young people and professionals.

There is strong evidence that service users highly value the ability to be autonomous and make choices in their mental health journey on Kooth, whilst, importantly, remaining anonymous. Removing barriers to support is critical to improving early access and prevention of mental health deterioration. Kooth has multiple mechanisms and features that can support a diverse set of users accessing the service and is seen as a digital front door for many due to no thresholds, referrals or waiting lists. Service users reported that Kooth helped them feel heard and listened to, and there were strong indicators that service users promoted the platform to their peers. Both service users and professionals outside of Kooth highly value the out-of-hours support as well as the ability to access the platform without a referral and no waiting lists to have a chat with a professional.