Kids Help Phone Launches the KHP Innovation and Applied Research Accelerator for Youth Mental Health on the Elevate Stage

The acceleratorKHP will disrupt the future of youth mental health support in Canada

TORONTO (ON), October 2, 2024 — 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

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