SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Headspace Health, a global leader in mental health and wellbeing, today announced its partnership with youth-focused nonprofits Bring Change to Mind, co-founded by actress & activist Glenn Close, and Peer Health Exchange to kick off Headspace’s new Headspace For Teens social impact initiative. Through this initiative, Headspace aims to provide a platform to help teens be kind to their minds. The program will focus on three key areas: acceptance, access and action.
To promote acceptance, Headspace is committed to normalizing, fostering, and humanizing conversations around mental health so that young people feel comfortable talking about how they feel. Secondly, Headspace is committed to providing free access to the app for all teens in the United States, ages 13-18, who are affiliated with select national non-profits. To build a fully inclusive program that takes action, Headspace also plans to provide tangible opportunities for young people to get involved in shaping this program by having a voice on the curated in-app content being developed specifically for teens, hosting youth council dialogues to listen to current unmet needs, and more. In order to participate, children and young adults ages 13-18 in America, must register to be a part of the aforementioned nonprofits who are official partners of the Headspace For Teens initiative. As more nonprofits join this effort, Headspace will continue to expand reach and accessibility across the globe to help curb mental health stressors among today’s youth around the world.
Even before the pandemic, the need for mental health resources for youth has been growing -- COVID-19 only exacerbated the existing needs and highlighted limitations to accessing resources and care. A CDC report from 2020 has shown that mental health emergencies among young people have increased across the board. In that same year, there was a 31% increase in emergency room visits for mental health reasons for those between 12 and 17 years old. Even more concerning, suicide remains the second leading cause of death with ages 13-18 in America. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of our nation’s youth still lack access to affordable healthcare coverage. Headspace For Teens will help act as a preventative measure, knowing that 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14.
“Through our research, we see that teens today are under a great deal of stress and experience high levels of anxiety due to the demands of school, their jobs, extracurriculars, social life, and a general uncertainty about their futures,” said Alice Nathoo, Head of Social Impact at Headspace. “Even though many teens have an awareness of and vocabulary for mental health issues, this doesn't always translate to action. That's why our goal is to make Headspace free for teens through these incredible partners in a way that is meaningful, collaborative and truly accessible. Together, we plan to come up with solutions that help address mental health inequalities, particularly for underrepresented communities."
"Headspace has become my favorite and most accessible form of self-care,” said Ximena, Bring Change to Mind Teen Leader. “It's taught me skills such as how to ease my body and mind during anxious times and how to ground myself. One thing that I really struggle with is winding down my mind at night and Headspace’s sleep radio has been most helpful."
For several years, Headspace’s social impact focus has been on providing free access to the app for teachers and supporting staff in the US, UK, Canada and Australia through its Headspace for Educators program. Headspace for Teens is a natural extension and just the beginning of a larger initiative to instill positive mental health habits in young people and the team is looking for additional youth-focused nonprofit partners to provide this free offering to as many teens as possible. Headspace is also committed to improving acceptance, access, and action among those particularly at risk from mental health pressures, such as teens who identify as LGBTQ, those within BIPOC communities and young people in rural areas who lack adequate services. These populations can only be reached by working directly with partners making an impact in these communities.
“This partnership with Headspace enables us to further advance health equity and improve outcomes for Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ young people," said Robin Rich, Chief Operating Officer at Peer Health Exchange. "Since our May launch of selfsea, a web app co-designed with young people to boost access to inclusive health resources and information for youth everywhere, Headspace's free meditation has been one of the most frequently used resources on our app reminding us that young people continually want mental health resources that are accessible and catered to their needs."
“A lot of times, it's hard to get the resources I need for my mental wellbeing," said Makayla Boney, Youth Design Group member at Peer Health Exchange. "I love how Headspace and Peer Health Exchange are collaborating to make a safe place for teenagers just like me.”
Across their global footprint, Headspace is also looking to expand this initiative into additional countries. For all youth-focused nonprofits interested in exploring a partnership whether based in the U.S. or globally, please fill out Headspace’s partnerships form here.
This news comes on the heels of Headspace's merger with leading on-demand healthcare provider, Ginger, to form Headspace Health. Ginger recently announced Ginger for Teens, an expansion of the company’s full continuum of mental healthcare offerings including behavioral health coaching, therapy and psychiatry for adolescents. To support the growth of this offering, Ginger is currently seeking psychiatrists that are adolescent-specialists and bilingual Spanish-speaking for both full-time and part-time opportunities. Please visit Ginger’s careers site to learn more.
About Headspace Health
Headspace Health is the world’s leading provider of mental health and wellbeing solutions. Through our flagship Headspace brand, we’ve touched the lives of over 100 million people in 190 countries through mindfulness tools for managing stress, sleep, and focus. Our enterprise brands, Headspace for Work and Ginger, are distributed through over 2,700 enterprises, including Starbucks, Adobe, Delta Air Lines, and ViacomCBS; and through health plans such as Cigna. Our members and enterprise partners’ employees have access to mindfulness and meditation tools, CBT, coaching, therapy, and psychiatry, ultimately helping them to be healthier and more productive. To learn more about Headspace Health and our family of brands, visit www.headspacehealth.com.
About Headspace
Headspace was created with one mission in mind: to improve the health and happiness of the world. Reaching 70 million users in 190 countries, Headspace was one of the first meditation apps in the world and remains a leader in mindfulness and mental training. Headspace is committed to advancing the field of mindfulness through clinically validated research, with one of the largest research pipelines of any digital health and wellness company. Headspace supports government entities like New York State and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to offer digital mental health tools. Headspace partners with many of the world’s most-recognizable brands, including Apple, Sesame Street, Spotify, Amazon, and Nike as well as Netflix for a three part mindfulness series that premiered in 2021. Headspace has been recognized as TIME100’s Most Influential Companies of 2021, Fast Company’s 10 most innovative social good companies of 2021 and World’s Most Innovative Companies. Other accolades include Apple’s Best of 2018, Samsung's Best of 2019 and one of CB Insights’ top digital health companies, along with being selected for seven Webby Awards in podcasts, health and fitness. In 2021, Headspace merged with on-demand mental healthcare provider, Ginger, to create Headspace Health - a leading provider of mental health and wellbeing solutions. For more information please visit us at www.headspace.com, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About Bring Change to Mind
Bring Change to Mind (BC2M) is a nonprofit organization on a mission to end the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. To do so, BC2M develops youth programs, creates multimedia campaigns, and curates storytelling movements to encourage a diverse cultural conversation and to raise awareness, understanding, and empathy around mental health. To learn more, visit https://bringchange2mind.org/.
About Peer Health Exchange
Peer Health Exchange’s mission is to build healthier communities with young people. Together, we create education opportunities for peers to share the tools and resources young people need to make healthy decisions. To learn more visit www.peerhealthexchange.org, and to learn about our new app selfsea, visit www.selfsea.org.
