At yourtown we deliver services that tackle the issues affecting the lives of young people.
Mental health is a big one. So we know that kids need to be able to easily access tailored professional resources to help in everyday life.
After extensive collaboration with young people, we're proud to introduce niggle. The app that allows kids to capture their niggles and do something about them.
An expert team of Kids Helpline counsellors, QUT psychologists and designers have worked together to create a tool dedicated to helping young people deal with the real issues in their lives.
Using the niggle app, kids can get help with things like:
- Mental health
- Physical health and identity
- Friends
- Family
- Relationships and sex
- School and work
- Life issues
- eSafety
How does it work?
Using niggle, kids can track their wellbeing and get personalised information, videos, podcasts, quizzes and tips to help tame their niggles.
Plus, they can hear from other young people as they share their stories and find out what helped them!
From feeling down or sad to sexual identity, dealing with conflict, loneliness and more - this is a take home, self-help toolkit that is available 24/7 for all things related to mental, social and emotional wellbeing.
The app can also be used in conjunction with a Kids Helpline counsellor to provide 24/7 support that is tailored to a young person’s needs.
Young people said they wanted a trusted resource that could become part of their daily wellbeing toolkit
They told us they wanted to be able to access multiple resources – we delivered them articles, videos, podcasts and quizzes.
They said they wanted to hear from other young people who have gone through similar experiences – we enabled them to not just read each other’s stories, but share their own.
They wanted to be able to integrate the tool into their own lives – we developed helpful “to do’s” they can schedule into their own calendars.
They said it needed to be an app – that’s exactly what we delivered.
What kids told us about niggle
Results from the randomised controlled trial of the app, suggest that niggle was able to amplify the effect of Kids Helpline’s counselling services for young people’s anxiety, resilience, self-efficacy and behavioural activation.
Feedback from young people included:
“Wonderful to have a visual representation of my anxieties and to have easy and achievable suggestions on how to be proactive about it.”
“I enjoyed how interactive it is and does not make me feel embarrassed to use.”
“I really liked it and I think it is a great idea to be able to check in with yourself and how you’re feeling."
"From what I’ve seen it’s been great! I even showed my psychologist and she thought it was amazing too!”
niggle can help young people who are reluctant to reach out for help
In 2018, there were 284,184 attempts to contact Kids Helpline. 53% of contacts were seeking information, referral or other support. During that same year the Kids Helpline website had 843,753 unique visitors and 2,912,200 page views from users self-directing their help seeking by looking for information and support.
Young people can be reluctant to reach out for help directly because there is a stigma around help-seeking, they perceive no-one can help, or they have a preference for self-reliance.
The niggle app helps to overcome these barriers!
A co-funded project between Australian Research Council, Kids Helpline and Queensland University of Technology (QUT), niggle was created in collaboration with young people for young people.
About yourtown...
We’re a community funded organisation that tackle issues like youth unemployment and mental health, and take on issues like domestic and family violence.
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