Mental health champions across secondary schools in the area and members of the Stirling Youth Forum spent three months researching and developing a challenge on how technology can help young people start conversations about mental health.
They had identified mental health as an important issue for them at last year’s inaugural Youth Gathering - part of Stirling’s ‘Our Place, Our Space’ initiative, which gives young people a voice in influencing services.
Their idea was published in July as part of CivTech® 3.0 - the third round of the Scottish Government’s award-winning programme, which invites technology innovators to submit solutions to public sector challenges.
Stirling Council are supporting the initiative as co-sponsors, along with NHS National Services Scotland and Health Care Improvement Scotland.
After assessing proposals, the young people selected Voxsio, an Edinburgh-based technology company, to provide a solution to their challenge in the ‘accelerator phase’.
This part of the challenge was officially launched on Thursday, October, 25 by Derek Mackay, Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work.
Mental health champions from Dunblane High School - Evie Gulland, Ruby Ginoris and Harriet Duffus - represented the young people from across Stirling at the launch.
They said: “The idea behind our choice was to help remove the stigma surrounding mental health.
“We wanted technology that could offer personalised help and we felt Voxsio engaged with the issue and listened to what we were saying. It is really exciting to be leading a new approach on such a key issue for young people all across Scotland.”
During the four- month accelerator phase Voxsio, the young people and co-sponsors will work together to develop a prototype solution using conversational Artificial Intelligence technology.
The aim of the solution is to not only help young people start the conversation about mental health but provide personalised advice on where to access additional services and ongoing support.
Councillor Susan McGill, Convener of the Children and Young People Committee at Stirling Council said: “We are excited to be involved in this fantastic, innovative project, supported by other public bodies and locally through the Community Planning Partnership (CPP), who have placed mental health as one of their top priorities for children.
“Through Stirling’s ‘Our Place, Our Space’ project, the Stirling Youth Forum and our school mental health champions, we are placing young people at the heart of decision-making and they have led this project from the start.
“Our young people identified mental health as one of our four important issues to them last year at the inaugural Youth Gathering in the city – an event where their voices were heard.”
“Since then, pupils in schools across Stirling have taken responsibility for taking this theme forward with CivTech in both research and development.
“It was brilliant for some of the youth leaders to be there for the launch of this important stage in the process, and we are looking forward to see how the challenge progresses over the coming months.”
Emily Horgan and Michael McTernan from Voxsio said: “It is a pleasure to work with the Youth Leaders and match their enthusiasm in improving mental health discussions.
“Our priority is to start conversations around mental health and we believe it is crucial that conversations around mental health are personalised. Voxsio are using conversational artificial intelligence to help support young people in dealing with mental health issues.”
Note: Video of the young people presenting their challenge and other background information is available via this link:
https://civtech.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CIV/pages/540803073/Wildcard+Challenge+Starting+the+Mental+Health+Conversation
Picture shows Mental health champions from Dunblane High School - Evie Gulland, Ruby Ginoris and Harriet Duffus - along with Emily Horgan and Michael McTernan from Voxsio, and Derek Mackay, Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work.