ReachOut Australia selects APD to build new digital platform and help parents help teenagers

Leading e-mental health organisation ReachOut Australia will strengthen its services from early 2016 by supporting parents and carers to build family resilience and maintain and improve the mental health and wellbeing of children within their family environment.

APD has been selected to work with Australia’s leading e-mental health organisation ReachOut Australia to build a new digital platform that supports parents and carers to build family resilience and maintain and improve the mental health and wellbeing of children within their family environment.

The service extension will provide parents and carers with the knowledge and skills to better support children through difficulties, increase family resilience and make sure more young people get the right help at the right time. The innovative portal will draw on ReachOut’s 17 years of working with young people and offer moderated forums, free information and tools, and practical how-to guides to help parents and carers manage problems in a supported self-care environment, consistent with ReachOut’s focus on early intervention.

Says Stephen Smorgon, CEO of APD Australia: “This is a major new service for ReachOut Australia that will extend their current services for youth and professionals. We will be ready to launch the service extension in the first half of 2016.”

Says Jonathan Nicholas, CEO of ReachOut Australia: “ReachOut already supports young people directly and indirectly via the resources and information we provide to people in their networks: teachers, friends, school counsellors and health professionals. Extending this approach to include families is a natural development of our trusted online service, which is already accessed by more than two million people every year. We have partnered with APD to ensure this vital channel for youth mental health is connecting with parents in the most effective way online.”

APD has been working with ReachOut Australia on the organisation’s search engine marketing since August 2015.”