Three quarters of ReachOut users report psychological distress

Three quarters of young people who contacted the ReachOut site in the year to June 2012 reported psychological distress.

Three quarters of young people who contacted the ReachOut site in the year to June 2012 reported moderate or severe psychological distress, it has been revealed.

There was a 10% increase in the number of people contacting the service - which helps young people with mental health issues.

The most common issues were depression and anxiety, followed by bullying and abuse, suicide and self-harm, relationships and eating disorders.

Speaking at the launch of the Inspire Ireland Insights Report 2012, chairman of the Oireachtas Health Committee, Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer said: "It is imperative that we understand how young people going through tough times use the internet for information and advice.

"These insights provide us with a window into young people’s behaviour, and we need to use this information to continue to reach out in safe and meaningful ways to those who need help and support."

The report's findings were based on the annual user-profile survey of visitors to Inspire Ireland’s flagship programme, ReachOut.com, together with a sentiment analysis of all commentary on the site from June 2011 to June 2012.

The most frequently commented upon issue were depression (28%) and anxiety (16%), followed by other issues such as bullying and abuse, suicide and self-harm, romantic relationships and eating disorders.

Reflecting these trends, the depression and anxiety factsheets were the most visited factsheets on the website during this time.

Other key findings revealed in the Inspire Ireland Insights Report include:

* Respondents reported being more confident in their ability to help a friend than to access help, support or information for themselves.

* A range of environmental factors were associated with depression in comments to ReachOut.com with isolation, strain on relationships and money worries most commonly cited.

* Visitors experiencing anxiety (16%), revealed that their problems were with generalised anxiety (28%), panic attacks (28%) and social anxiety (16%).

January was the busiest month for visits to ReachOut.com, with Mondays and Tuesdays seeing a peak in visitors, and lower numbers on Saturdays.

Some 81% of respondents to the ReachOut.com user-profile survey stated that they would be unlikely to call a helpline if they were going through a tough time, with 68% saying they would be more inclined to use online resources such as ReachOut.com.

Elaine Geraghty, CEO of Inspire Ireland, added: "Providing young people with guidance on a 24/7 basis, in a safe online space, is so important.

"Through this research, we have been able to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which our service can help young people open up about mental health. For man, a visit to the site will be enough to get them through a tough time.

"For others we continue to take the mystery out of mental health and enable access to face to face support where it is needed. We look forward to continue working with Government to share our knowledge around online mental health support."