Social Connectiveness at a Distance

An interactive virtual reality experience developed with transgender individuals called Body of Mine VR is fostering empathy and understanding by sharing personal narratives and anecdotes that demonstrate their journeys, struggles, and triumphs.

LGBTQ+ youth centers, like The Ruth Ellis Center, are working to provide a sense of community and access to necessary services to uplift local LGBTQ+ youth. The Ruth Ellis Center offers shelter to LGBTQ+ youth facing homelessness and serves about 1,200 people each year. Along with shelter, the Center also works to bridge the healthcare gap in the LGBTQ+ community by partnering with Henry Ford Health to provide general wellness visits, STI/HIV screening, contraceptives and gender-affirming care.

Nour Sarah is a collaboration between two non-profits — Spectrum and LebMASH — that aims to help LGBTQ+ people in the North African and West Asian region understand their mental health issues and receive support services. Nour Sarah aims to provide safe care to those who need it in spaces where it’s historically hard to find. The group hosts educational sessions and connects people with counselors trained to provide care to LGBTQ+ people who are drastically under-supported when it comes to accessing mental health care.

A rural Texas county is using a free digital platform to connect residents to mental health resources. Bastrop County's new public health department partnered with CredibleMind to launch an online hub offering mental health assessments, self-guided tools, and a local services directory in English and Spanish. In its first six months, the platform reached nearly 1,900 unique users and achieved a 43% assessment completion rate.

Some youth are using mental health apps to supplement therapy or help them manage their emotions, making mental health care more accessible. While there are limitations regarding the apps’ regulations and validity, some research has found that mental health apps have moderately reduced anxiety, depression and suicide risk among the youth who use them.

Facing a youth mental health crisis, some schools are using digital screening tools like BIMAS-2 and DESSA to identify students needing behavioral support. Districts in Green Bay and Alexandria report positive results, but widespread adoption meets resistance due to costs, parent concerns, and limited capacity for follow-up support.

LandLogic Model trains mental healthcare providers to use farmers’ relationships to their land to identify and treat depression, anxiety, and other emotional issues. Virtual and easily adaptable training models have helped the LandLogic Model support this notoriously hard-to-reach population.

Sonar Mental Health, the developer of the AI-powered “wellbeing companion” named Sonny, is offering its services to schools that struggle to meet students’ demand for mental health services. Sonny’s algorithm also has trained humans working behind the scenes to ensure students receive proper care. The hybrid bot is available in more than 4,500 public middle and high schools across the country, many of which are in rural and low-income areas.

Teenspace is a free online therapy program that offers video and text-based mental health support. Nearly 7,000 teens have signed up for the program so far, and 65% of them have reported an improvement in their mental health since connecting to a licensed therapist through the platform.

Teen Space expands free access to mental health care. With parental consent, teens can sign up online or through the app and be quickly matched with a therapist. Since its launch last November, more than 6,000 students have signed up, and each one has been connected with a therapist within 24 hours.