ReachOut.com is an internet service for young Australians that provides information, support and resources about

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

issues and enable them to develop

resilience Resilience, resilient, or resiliency may refer to: Science Ecology * Ecological resilience, the capacity of an ecosystem to recover from perturbations ** Climate resilience, the ability of systems to recover from climate change ** Soil resilien ...

, increase

coping skill Coping refers to conscious or unconscious strategies used to reduce and manage unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviors and can be individual or social. To cope is to deal with struggles and difficulties in life. It ...

s, and facilitate help-seeking behaviour. The site contains information about issues affecting young people in the form of fact sheets, stories, podcasts and online forums.

History

ReachOut.com was launched in March 1998 as an initiative of Inspire Foundation (now known as ReachOut Australia) to help young people with their

. ReachOut provides online support to young people going through tough times. It provides online resources like real stories and fact sheets which are written alongside young people, and a peer-support forum which is a space where young people can talk about mental health issues and receive support and help. In 2008 ReachOut opened sites in Ireland and the USA. Both sites were later closed.

Site content

Writing style and tone

The majority of ReachOut is written in an

informal Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements ( forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to: Dress code and events * Formal wear, attire for formal events * Semi-formal att ...

tone to appeal to the younger audience. The writing is often broken up into smaller sections or contains lists, and is usually accompanied by an image.

Site authors

Young people play a key role in writing content and developing ReachOut. The service often partners with other health and community service organizations to provide accurate and current information. As the site is informational, users are referred to phone and web

counselling Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes. This is a list of c ...

services such as

Kids Helpline Kids Helpline is a free Australian telephone and online counselling service for young people aged between 5 and 25. Counsellors respond to more than 6,000 calls each week about issues ranging from relationship breakdown and bullying to sex ...

and Lifeline.

Target Audience

ReachOut.com is primarily targeted towards children and adolescents in Australia, particularly ones that are going through challenging times. As of 2023, ReachOut has not expanded its services to any other countries, and the website requires an official Australian postal code to access its services. Staff have redirected overseas users to similar websites, such as Kooth and SANE, to ensure that they get the support they need.

Services Linked With ReachOut.com

Reach Out.com has expanded its website to include new services.

ReachOut Central

ReachOut Central is a "serious" game that works interactively to help young people explore how thinking, behaviour and feelings interact with each other. A series of real life scenarios allow users to discover how the way they think and feel can positively influence their behaviour (or vice versa) and the impact this has on the outcome of situations. The information provided in the game links with information provided on ReachOut.com through the format of tips and tricks and links to fact sheets. On 17 September 2007 ReachOut Central launched as a full version game after a successful run with the pilot program with limited scenarios. The current version of the game allows for further expansion in additional scenarios that can be scripted and updated when new information is made available. Within two weeks of launching ReachOut Central was nominated and eventually named as a winner in the Changemakers.net Why Games Matter Competition. The announcement of the win with two other games was made on 8 November 2007. The interactive game was the only

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n game nominated. ReachOut Central also came runner-up in the Health Category of the Stockholm Challenge Awards for 2008. ReachOut Central was one of the 19 finalists chosen from across the world under the Health Category of the Awards. The Stockholm Challenge Awards is an international award that inspires and challenges the information and technology industries to create social and sustainable benefits for individuals and communities through their projects.

ReachOut Community Forum

The online forum lets

young people Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood (Maturity (psychological), maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as bei ...

share what is happening in their lives, in a safe environment moderated by staff and trained moderators. The forums are not a counselling service but often help to refer young people to information and services. They are also a way for ReachOut.com users to connect to each other and find others they can share similar experiences with.

ReachOut Teachers' Network

Launched in April 2007, the ReachOut Teachers’ Network connects secondary school teachers with the ReachOut service by providing classroom lessons on issues that young people may face within the

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...

areas in schools.

ReachOut Pro

The ReachOut.com Professionals service targets

professionals A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

dealing with young people and mental health by providing an online source of information and resources. The provision of these resources aims to provide a way for a range of professionals to engage young people in the treatment and maintenance of better mental health outcomes.

ReachOut Youth Involvement

All of ReachOut Australia's programs have input from young people, all of whom are volunteers. ReachOut has over 100 Youth Ambassadors from around Australia, and it is these young people who have input to the development of the website, and activities in which ReachOut partakes. The work the young people undertake ranges from administration tasks in the central office, to presentations for the service and moderation of the ReachOut Community Forums.

ReachOut Parents

In May 2016 ReachOut introduced a new free online service for parents who want to help but would like to know more about topics such as

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...

self-esteem Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth, abilities, or morals. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Macki ...

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

, and

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. A recent study found that 70% of teenagers do not access support, and if they do, most will turn to their parents first. ReachOut Parents provides practical support to encourage effective communication between parents and young people aged 12–18 years.

Awards

* Gold Harold for Health & Medicine, Life Education 2013 * Best Not for Profit Site, SiteCore Site of the Year Awards (ANZ) 2013 * Inspire Foundation (ReachOut.com) awarded for excellence in suicide prevention within social media in 20142014 LiFE Award Winners by Suicide Prevention Australia
/ref>

External links

ReachOut.com

ReachOut.com Professionals

ReachOut Central

About ReachOut Australia

References

{{Portal bar, Australia Reach Out! Mental health organisations in Australia