Ensuring the safety of our community
Tellmi is an incredible community of like minded young people who share experiences anonymously, and provide each other with emotional support, advice and empathy. It is a safe accessible solution which makes it easy for young people to get help when they need it.
When Freddie joined Tellmi, he was really struggling with anxiety and depression. He was finding it impossible to engage with school and he was pretty sure that he was going to fail his GCSEs. He made a post and was really surprised at the amount of support he got from young people who were in exactly the same boat as him. Realising that he wasn't the only one and being able to talk openly and anonymously about ALL the things that were going on in his life, gave Freddie the confidence to try and tackle some of the issues that were getting him down. He began using some of the study strategies that the Tellmi community told him about and he did much better than he expected in his GCSE’s.
Freddie still uses Tellmi for support, but mostly, he uses what he has learned to help other young people on Tellmi. The sooner young people get support, the less likely it is that their issues will escalate, however sometimes, the young people who turn to Tellmi are already in crisis. They might make a post that indicates they’ve harmed themselves, or are at risk of doing so. Freddy and the rest of the Tellmi community are capable of helping with a wide range of issues, but high risk posts require specialist support. To ensure that young people who are in crisis get the level of support that they require and to protect users like Freddie from issues that they are not equipped to deal with, moderators transfer all high risk posts to one of our qualified counsellors who will message the young person privately.
Tellmi is the only digital support service that offers pre-emptive counsellor intervention to keep young people safe from harm. Tellmi counsellors communicate with the young person through private messages. The interactions are not published in the Tellmi feed. Once a counsellor is sure the young person is safe from immediate risk, they will help them to explore what long-term support options are available to them. They may benefit from Tellmi’s scheduled 1-2-1 Solution Focused Therapy service, or they may require more intensive specialist support.
For most young people who are very distressed, counsellor support and establishing a way forward helps to de-escalate tension, however if a young person is in crisis and they cannot reassure us of their safety, or we identify an immediate threat to life, we will alert the emergency services and share their personal information to ensure that they get the help they need. Our counsellor will always ask the young person for their consent and talk them through the process. In our experience, young people in crisis are reaching out because they want help, and that is why Tellmi has a policy of partial anonymity. Our community is completely anonymous, but if necessary, our counsellors can access personal information; a partial postcode, a validated email address or a phone number, which is provided on registration. We believe that this is the best way to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all of our users.