The acceleratorKHP will
disrupt the future of youth mental health support in Canada
TORONTO, Oct. 2, 2024
/CNW/ - Kids Help Phone (KHP) is proud to announce the launch of
acceleratorKHP — KHP's Innovation and
Applied Research Accelerator for Youth Mental Health. As the
catalyst for youth mental health innovation in Canada, acceleratorKHP will deliver
new mental health and wellness products, services designed with
young people for the modern digital era, applied research, and
policy changing insights. The acceleratorKHP will
revolutionize the way young people experience mental health
and wellness support to thrive in their world. Today's youth are
facing a rapidly evolving crisis, with challenges more complex than
ever before. Youth under 13 who contacted KHP about suicide
increased by 200% from 2019 to 2023. In 2023 alone, KHP interacted
with 4.7 million youth, the highest number in the organization's
history.
acceleratorKHP is designed to tackle this escalating
crisis. KHP is harnessing the power of a one of-a-kind dataset (the
largest and most unique on youth mental health in Canada), the emerging capabilities in
artificial intelligence (AI), and 35 years of experience supporting
young people. As the most trusted charity in Canada, KHP is uniquely positioned to lead the
development of next generation solutions to address the youth
mental health crisis head on.
acceleratorKHP is the pathway to the next evolution
of KHP and puts young people in the centre of their mental health
and wellbeing in ways that have never been possible before modern
capabilities in AI and machine learning. Products designed within
acceleratorKHP will be co designed with young people and
fueled by clinical experts and world leading technology
partners.
KHP will achieve its goals by creating multi-sectoral
partnerships with those who will rally around the Feel Out Loud
movement, with a social impact commitment to delivering a
personalized wellbeing experience for all youth in Canada, and globally. New products stemming
from this unique incubator of innovation and data have been
generously supported by our strategic partners at Levio, a leading
consulting firm that specializes in digital transformation, and the
Vector Institute, a globally renowned institute that empowers
researchers and industry to develop and adopt AI responsibly.
Recently, Levio and Kids Help Phone announced a $1 million gift-in-kind partnership, in which
Levio will share its AI expertise and strategic advice with KHP to
continue driving forward their mission of meeting young people
wherever they are in whatever way they need. The first project on
the partnership roadmap will focus on sentiment analysis to decode
the way young people speak about their experiences and mental
health. Learnings will enable further informed decisions about
content, programs, partnerships, and services.
KHP previously announced a partnership with the Vector
Institute.The collaboration leverages natural language processing,
a subfield of AI, to further develop service delivery at KHP by
enhancing their e-mental health services to complement the skills
and expertise of its dedicated frontline staff.
KHP seeks support from the innovation, tech and entrepreneurial
communities to collaborate through acceleratorKHP, and
develop the next generation of mental health and wellness support
services – custom built and personalized to meet the unique needs
of every young person in Canada.
To get involved with acceleratorKHP visit
www.acceleratorkhp.ca
FAST FACTS
- KHP's has the most unique dataset of its kind in Canada with 45M
real-time, real language data points in the voices of youth and
what they are experiencing in any moment.
- All interactions with Kids Help Phone remain completely
confidential. And meet a best in-class de-identification tool that
meets the new ISO27559 standard for de-identifying data containing
personal information.
- Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth in
Canada. And Canada has the third highest suicide rate for
all developed countries. Nearly a quarter of service interactions
with KHP are related to suicide.
- 75 % of service users tell KHP something they've never told
anyone before.
- KHP has always been a disruptor – a founder of virtual
healthcare in Canada, through its
24/7 telephone service – and has been disrupting ever since.
- In 2018, KHP launched Canada's
first texting service, where AI and machine learning (ML) were
introduced to triage texting the most distressed users, providing
human to human crisis response to those in need.
QUOTES
"The launch of acceleratorKHP marks
a milestone today for Kids Help Phone, and a significant step
forward for e-mental health solutions in Canada," said Katherine Hay, President & CEO, Kids Help
Phone. "KHP has a track record of evolving our services to meet the
needs of young people and is a global leader in innovation when it
comes to e-mental health solutions. Through strategic partnerships
in the tech and innovation space, generous support from our funders
and the Government of Canada, KHP
will lead the country in its evolution of delivering wellbeing and
support to youth coast-to-coast."
SUPPORTING QUOTES
"Last month Levio proudly announced a strategic partnership with
Kids Help Phone that will leverage AI to enhance the quality and
impact of their services," said Elaine
Marin, Head of the Data & AI Line of Business at Levio.
"The launch of the acceleratorKHP is a groundbreaking
step for the future of e-mental health solutions. With the
knowledge and dataset of KHP, combined with the expertise from
leaders in the tech space like Levio, this will undoubtedly
revolutionize how we support young people across the country."
"Canadian youth are in crisis and artificial intelligence and
machine learning are becoming increasingly integral tools to
provide them with the support they need," said Tony Gaffney, President & CEO, the Vector
Institute. "We are proud to play a role in the
acceleratorKHP leveraging cutting-edge technology to
enable faster, smarter, service delivery to support youth in real
time."
About Kids Help Phone
Kids Help Phone is Canada's only 24/7 national, e-mental health
service offering free, confidential, multi-lingual support to young
people. As the country's virtual care expert for 35 years, we give
millions of youth a safe, trusted space to Feel Out Loud over the
phone, through text, or in self-directed supports for any moment of
crisis or need. The Feel Out Loud campaign is the largest movement
for youth mental health in Canada's history – it will raise $300 million to unlock hope for young people to
thrive in their worlds. Kids Help Phone gratefully relies on the
generosity of donors, volunteers, stakeholder partners, corporate
partners and governments to fuel and fund our programs. Learn more
at KidsHelpPhone.ca.
About Levio
Levio is a digital native consulting firm
providing services covering all aspects of digital transformation,
from business strategies to information technologies (IT), to
organizational management, including cybersecurity, data
valorization, artificial intelligence and cloud
computing.
Since its creation in 2014, Levio has grown by leaps and bounds
and was listed on America's Fastest-Growing Companies 2021 for its
sustainable growth. Moreover, for a second year in a row, Levio
ranked among Glassdoor's top 25 Best Places to Work in Canada and ranks 32nd in Canada's Best Startup employers according to
Forbes.
The firm specializes in supporting its institutional and
corporate clients when implementing digital transformation programs
or mega-projects. For 10 years, Levio has built its reputation on
an outstanding team of consultants who deliver substantial
solutions benefiting from new technologies to help its clients gain
efficiency and profitability.
Levio has signed the Montreal Declaration for a Responsible
Development of Artificial Intelligence, and distinguished itself as
one of the few consulting firms to have signed the Canadian
Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and
Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems. By doing so, Levio
not only strengthens its pioneering role but also reaffirms its
commitment to the responsible and ethical use of AI.
More details at LevioConsulting.com.
About Vector Institute
Launched in 2017, the Vector
Institute works with industry, institutions, startups, and
governments to build AI talent and drive research excellence in AI
to develop and sustain AI based innovation to foster economic
growth and improve the lives of Canadians. Vector aims to advance
AI research, increase adoption in industry and health through
programs for talent, commercialization, and application, and lead
Canada towards the responsible use
of AI. Programs for industry, led by top AI practitioners, offer
foundations for applications in products and processes,
company-specific guidance, training for professionals, and
connections to workforce-ready talent. Vector is funded by the
Government of Ontario, the
Government of Canada through the
Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, and
leading industry sponsors from across multiple sectors of Canadian
Industry.
SOURCE Kids Help Phone