Supporting Student Mental Health Through Digital Compassion

The central output of this work is the development of a conceptual framework for compassionate help seeking using digital technologies, grounded in the lived experiences of transition-aged youth. This project has three phases (1) one-on-one conversations with students to better understand their current pathways of support seeking; (2) Persona development and journey mapping, where we met with students to brainstorm what a help-seeking experience would look like for each persona and (3) validating of a conceptual framework. During the final phase, we are meeting with students to validate and expand on a framework that was developed based on the findings of the two initial phases.

With the support of The University of Toronto, The Michener Institute for Education, George Brown College and Toronto Metropolitan University, our lab has been working on a 4 year project to improve digital help-seeking for transition-aged youth (18-30). Specifically, we have been investigating what factors contribute to a digitally compassionate help-seeking experience for students. While digital tools have made it easier to access support, they can also create environments where compassion is lost, contributing to negative experiences, unmet needs and increased isolation. Although many transition aged youth actively seek help online, existing tools and platforms often do not reflect their needs or provide safe, supportive and inclusive spaces for engagement.