Kooth's response to recent media coverage
Kooth Digital Health (United Kingdom)
Effective personalised digital mental health care, available to all
We’re extremely disheartened by an article published by The Telegraph yesterday evening, which includes a number of factual inaccuracies. Specifically, the assertion that Kooth is being ‘formally investigated’ by NHS England, which is untrue.
Although we were given the right to respond, not all of the information that we provided was reflected in this article.
A full response is available here on our website, which addresses the allegations made in the article. We take these allegations very seriously, and will continue to engage with our colleagues in NHS England, DHSC and the Department for Education to demonstrate that our services are safe for our Kooth community.
Kooth has been working with the NHS, local authorities, schools, young people and their families for over 20 years, and at the centre of our work is a commitment to ensuring that people from all walks of life get safe, effective and accessible mental health and wellbeing support - often this includes discussion of sensitive topics, which must be handled with care.
As such, our counsellors follow national guidance and clinical best practice (such as NICE) when working with users on all topics, including gender identity, sexuality and eating disorders. Our counselling team all hold a professional qualification with an accredited body (such as BACP, NCS).
We take our responsibilities for safeguarding our Kooth community of users with the seriousness that it merits. All practitioners are robustly trained and audited, and with a minimum of level 3 safeguarding (rather than level 1 as stated in the article).
Let’s not forget that the need for accessible and available mental health support has never been more important.
Only last week, the Children's Commissioner stated that almost one million children and young people – 949,200 – were referred to CYP mental health services, also known as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in 2022/23.
Everyone should have access to professional mental health support. Kooth is an inclusive, welcoming and safe service, which aims to help turn the tide on the growing mental health crisis.
Currently completing Psychotherapy MSc
2moI agree with all comments above. I have worked with kooth for 9 years. It's an incredible company I am so proud to be part of. ❤️
Psychotherapist (both privately and for Adoption UK), LGBTQ+. Views are my own.
3moAs somebody previously intimately involved in the Safeguarding of children at Kooth, I can honestly say Safeguarding is taken incredibly seriously, and rightly so, and is at the very core and heart of everything the organisation does, designs, delivers, and supports. The structures are scaffolded by Safeguarding, and is also something that is openly and transparently talked about with children directly, as well as with professionals and all employees, not just those directly supporting children and young people. It is not the job of a counsellor to tell a young person that what they feel and who they are is invalid, and the sort of opinion and rhetoric being used to target is dangerous and unhelpful. Of course people should raise concerns if they have them, but it’s important to look at the nature and source of those and see some of this for what it is. Children and young people have very few places to safely share their inner worlds, emotional lives, and identity, and some of the criticism is very reminiscent of rhetoric around sexuality from 30 years ago (and sadly more recently too). I just sincerely hope children are not discouraged or deterred from accessing much needed support.
Counsellor helping parents and young people struggling with conflict and / or mental health achieve calm and improved communication through affordable specialist counselling. Also provide DDP via adoption agencies.
3moNo organisation is perfect and when dealing with mental health, risk cannot be totally eliminated. However, in my experience after 4.5 years with Kooth in different roles, I believe the organisation works hard to uphold the highest standards. The staff are skilled, qualified and dedicated. Safeguarding is a number 1 priority and is very closely monitored. Content in moderated and checked. As a mother I would be happy that my child was accessing a safe platform. There are many so called counselling platforms out there that DO warrant scrutiny and journalistic investigation- I’m sorry that Kooth has come in for this sort of inaccurate reporting. I hope that my former colleagues are not impacted by this - and continue to forge the way forward to make mental health support accessible for all.
Business Alliance Manager @ Thames Valley Chamber | Expert in Business Development, Key Account Management, Digital Therapeutics (DTx), Workplace Mental Health. Passionate about AI, incl. Generative AI, for innovation
3moYou guys do great robust work. The Telegraph should isssue an apology.