The platform is UK’s first free, confidential, peer support and coaching chat service, providing free mental health peer support securely online through apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telegram.
November 17th, 2022: knus is leveraging modern technology to help people discover effective ways of reducing anxiety in everyday life. Launched in 2021, the platform is the UK’s first free, confidential peer support and coaching service, established to connect people suffering from anxiety and depression with trained and experienced peer support coaches.
Defined as the intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations, anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders affecting a large number of people in today’s fast-moving world. Mental Health UK reports that over 8 million people are experiencing an anxiety disorder at any given time. And despite its high prevalence, less than 50% of people with generalised anxiety disorder access treatment to help with the condition.
To change the narrative, knus provides free mental health peer support securely online through apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telegram. The organisation’s technology connects service users to trained volunteers that have overcome the problem themselves and are qualified to offer assistance after taking its accredited peer support course.
“We like our conversations to be hopeful, respectful, supportive and based on shared understanding. Our volunteers all have different mental health tips based on their lived experience and we hope this empowers you moving forward. As the conversation comes to a natural close, we may incorporate life coaching into the conversation, as it always feels good to have a plan and some aims.”
Through its free CPD-accredited Overcoming Anxiety course, participants get to explore effective ways to reduce anxiety, as well as coping strategies for managing their emotions and setting achievable goals for the future. The reflections submitted from every experience in the course are responded to by peer support coaches, many of whom have battled with anxiety in their own lives. In addition, the organisation also works with businesses and other corporate entities, leveraging its wealth of experience to help employees with mental health concerns free of charge.
As a non-profit organisation, knus is run solely by trained volunteers, is fully insured, and is regulated by the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies. Its multidisciplinary committee is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, social workers, mental health nurses, occupational therapists, academics, and other individuals with lived experiences; who are responsible for directing the activities of the organisation—ensuring growth and efficiency as it moves to achieve its objectives.
Anyone interested in using the free peer support and coaching chat service can visit the organisation’s website to register and get the help needed to overcome anxiety. For more information, please reach out to knus via the contact info below.
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