Dear Mental Health Professionals,
More and more young people are turning to social media for mental health support. And while nothing can replace clinical support, Hi Anxiety has spent two years developing an easily replicable formula that helps support young people in one of the main spaces they already are - social media.
Our goal is to reach young people experiencing “everyday anxieties” and offer self-management and self-awareness tools to support them. We’ve done this by developing a framework centered in the academic field of social emotional learning (SEL). At a high-level, our framework has three steps:
Validate + Inquire + Refer
We validate and acknowledge our audience with affirming statements in the comments sections. We follow-up with self-awareness and self-management questions to encourage reflection, while also providing tools, such as breathing tips and grounding techniques. We also acknowledge that there is a limit to what social media can do, and we often refer our audience to mental health resources, such as therapists, in their local area to receive more help. We invite you to use this formula within your social media accounts, and we also share some tips below on how to grow your own social media presence.
VALIDATE
When a follower responds with a comment highlighting sadness, frustration or anxiety, acknowledge how they’re feeling. Good examples of validating statements include:
“We hear you.”
“Thank you for sharing.”
“Quarantine has been challenging for so many of us.”
“You are not alone.”
INQUIRE
A key goal of social and emotional learning (SEL) is to help young people learn self-awareness. Encouraging reflection can help:
For example, if a follower shares a comment demonstrating low self-esteem, you can ask:
“What’s just one thing you like about yourself?”
Or if someone says they’re struggling, you can ask:
“What’s one thing that helps you manage difficult emotions when you’re having a tough time?”
Or if they express that they feel defeated or behind, you can ask:
“What’s something you’re proud of yourself for? It can even be just getting out of bed today.”
It’s important to make the questions manageable and specific.
When they respond, you can validate and celebrate their reflection:
“That’s great!”
“Keep taking it one day a time.”
Or offer them a self-management tip, like trying breathing techniques.
If relevant, you can also point them to mental health tips and tools on other accounts, such as Hi Anxiety.
REFER
Sometimes a follower needs more support than any social media account can provide. In these instances, it’s important to encourage the follower to speak to a mental health professional. We recommend doing this delicately and providing local, vetted resources where possible.
An example response is:
“We’re so sorry you’re having a hard time. We’d recommend speaking to a mental health professional to give you the support you deserve. If you’re in the US, @crisistextline has counselors available 24/7 to speak to you for free, just send a text to 741741. Or @openpathpsychotherapy has low-cost and virtual therapy options”
You can also view our list of mental health hotlines.
Any mention of suicide or self-harm, should immediately be referred to a Suicide Prevention Hotline in their local country. For example, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the U.S. is 1-800-273-8255.
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT STRATEGY TIPS
Key to Hi Anxiety’s ability to provide SEL support has been creating and implementing an effective social media content strategy. Here are our top recommendations to help build your social media presence as a mental health professional:
Are you just getting started?
We recommend beginning with just one platform. Instagram has an existing mental health community and is an easy place to start.
Visual posts perform best
Experiment with colorful, approachable, illustrated quote posts and tips. The fewer words the better. Keep in mind that people are scrolling quickly, so the more eye-catching and the easier to read, the better.
Not an artist?
Partner with one of the many mental health artists on Instagram to illustrate your wisdom. Or work with existing word art apps and tools, like Canva, Word Swag and Text Art.
Use relevant hashtags on your posts
#mentalhealthmatters Users find content they’re looking for based on hashtags. Hashtags also help feed your content to interested users through the Instagram algorithm
Tag and follow others
Tag and follow other relevant accounts in order to build a trusted community. Also if you ever re-post or share content from another account, please be sure to credit the original creator in the first-two lines of your caption and tag them in the post.
Scan for spam
There are lots of bots and spammers on social media. Keep an eye out in the comments section of your account and delete posts that aren’t in-line with your values.
Post regularly
We recommend at least one feed and story post a day to feed the Instagram algorithm. If that schedule is too much, find a pace that works for you. But the more consistent you are, the better your audience (and the algorithm) know when to look out for new content from you.
Want to learn more?
Check out the Community Manager Manual we use for our team, or reach out to us for a personalized training for your organization.
ABOUT US
Hi Anxiety is a digital social impact campaign that uses the field of social emotional learning (SEL) to help young people better manage everyday anxieties and improve emotional well-being. We have built an active and passionate community of over 200,000 people, with 3.97 million points of engagement on Instagram alone.
Over the last two years, Hi Anxiety has successfully offered self-management tools and self-awareness strategies as ways to help support young people. Our SEL framework guides the Hi Anxiety community engagement. Our impact partners include The Jed Foundation, our mental health clinical partner, and the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California Irvine, who share their academic expertise on digital well-being and conduct research on the campaign. The project is produced by social-impact experts Single Palm Tree Productions and we are honored to be supported by Pivotal Ventures, the investment and incubation company created by Melinda Gates.
Check out @_hi_anxiety_ on Instagram to see our SEL Framework in action and examples on how to best support your community.