Young people to access more targeted and streamlined mental health support thanks to ReachOut and batyr partnership

09 December 2016

Young people will be able to access more targeted and streamlined mental health support, thanks to a partnership between youth mental health organisations ReachOut and batyr.

batyr provide programs that train young people to speak about their personal experience with mental ill health and start a conversation in schools, universities and workplaces; while ReachOut provides digital mental health self-help services including apps, digital factsheets, games and peer support forums for young people.

The partnership will see ReachOut and batyr work together to so that young people are receiving clear and consistent messages – both in the form of batyr’s face to face programs and ReachOut’s digital programs- that empower them to look after their mental health.

The partnership will mean:

• batyr facilitators will direct school and uni students through batyr programs to ReachOut digital tools so that they can receive continued support

• ReachOut digital content will be integrated into to batyr@school and batyr@uni modules

• batyr speakers and facilitators will be able to inform and trial new ReachOut resources

• ReachOut will be able to connect ReachOut Schools who are interested in mental health modules to batyr

ReachOut CEO Jono Nicholas said, “We are really excited about this partnership. We love the work that batyr do and to us it makes sense to work together to provide more targeted and streamlined support to young people.

“We both have the same goals and we both take a youth-led, interactive and practical approach, we just deliver our help to young people in different ways – ReachOut focuses on digital self-help, while batyr focuses on face-to-face delivery and reducing mental health stigma.”

batyr CEO Sam Refshauge said, “ReachOut have been providing fantastic services to young people for 18 years, and we have being promoting their services since batyr was established in 2011. It is great to now do it officially through this partnership. One of the biggest challenges in supporting young people is providing consistent messages and support and if organisations like us can work together to over come this, ultimately young people will benefit in the end.”