Bluurb.me

There’s often a gap for young people between recognising when mental health challenges start and accessing formal psychological services. There are a lot of online resources to support people experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety, but nothing to help a young person self-identify symptoms or when they might need support. The UWA Robin Winkler Clinic began addressing this gap by developing the Managing My Emotions group workshop program. Our design challenge was to adapt the clinically proven activities and content from the program into a digital, self-paced format. We did this through co-design with young people and UWA.

Through trauma-informed, supported co-design and co-creation workshops with young people—who have a diverse lived experience of mental health and disabilities—we understood what they wanted and needed from this product. Close collaboration with Dr Lisa Saulsman and clinical psychologists from the University of Western Australia’s School of Psychological Science, ensures the clinical rigour of the product. The result is Bluurb.me: a fit-for-purpose product for youth, with all aspects from its features, language, structure, functions and colour determined by co-designers and co-creators to make an engaging and accessible experience.

Originally designed for 14-17 year olds, Bluurb.me goes much further. It’s accessible for any english-speaking person with year 8 reading level capabilities and internet access. Bluurb.me makes access to learn CBT techniques free and fast—something that usually costs thousands of dollars and can take months or years to learn through traditional therapy methods. Supporting young people to share and learn with Bluurb means we’re reducing isolation, boosting mental health skills and doing it the way they want. “You really listened, because these ideas are everything we said, and really engaging. I feel like these resources are really needed.” Co-designer

The process we ran was safe, supportive and inspiring for our design participants and co-designers. Without this approach, we wouldn’t have been able to deeply understand the needs and preferences of young people. As a result, we designed and built a unique product that truly honours their insights. “Living life with or without mental illness is hard, but stuff like this gives a lot of hope and makes me really excited.” Co-designer Our co-designers and co-creators developed prototypes which we used to design and build Bluurb.me. Based on these prototypes—and co-designer and participant input—the key focus of the tool is to guide and teach young people to recognise and cope with their emotions and life situations in an engaging, interactive way that does not infantilise users and keeps them safe and supported. “The collaboration ended up being really fantastic and surprising by how fun it was. It was one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve been involved in in my career.” Dr Lisa Saulsman