Most of us know teenagers or young adults who struggle with stress, sadness, worry or even more serious mental health issues. We want to be there for them, but that can be hard. How many times have you thought to yourself, “I don’t know how to help them with this”? Or heard them say, “Mama, you just don’t get it,” or, “That therapist doesn’t get me, I’m not going back!” The truth is, sometimes our kids would rather talk to their peers than to us about what’s going on with them.
What if you could connect your kid with a peer who has gone through their own mental health struggles, and has been trained to help others?
Imagine setting your kid up with someone to talk to who is a little ahead of them in their life journey and can provide emotional support, teach skills, and impart knowledge from their life experiences. That is the power of peer support—it’s a chance for someone who is struggling to learn from someone else who is living or has lived their same truth. At Flourish Labs, we believe in peer support because we know it works.
We set up peers.net to make it easier and faster for young people to access support. On our secure online platform, they can book confidential 1 on 1 video sessions with a peer supporter within 48 hours. They can choose a peer supporter who ‘gets it’ because they have experience of similar mental health struggles, and/or share their identity. All our peer supporters are Gen Z, fully trained and certified in peer support, and supervised by our experienced staff. We are currently offering services to people between the ages of 18 and 30, and we’re working on expanding to more ages.
With our newly launched gift service, you can now buy peer support sessions and send them to someone you love. You can buy just one session for them to try it, or buy a bundle and get a discount. It’s as easy as sending someone an Amazon gift card.
How gifting works:
1. You purchase a session or sessions and include a personal message to the recipient
2. We send an email to the recipient with a unique code
3. They use the code to book a session on peers.net and get support
The gifting feature was inspired by parents, but it’s for anyone. If you are a parent, auntie, fairy godmother or friend of someone who could benefit from better mental health support, head over to peers.net and send them the gift of peer support!
