Experts agree that COVID-19 has exacerbated mental health challenges around the world, and the repercussions will be felt for years to come. We’ve been working with leading authorities around the world — like NAMI, Kids Help Phone and It’s OK to Talk — to invest in the critical areas of mental health support, including handling financial stress, parenting support, coping with loss and grief, managing substance use and taking care of overall emotional health.
Today, Facebook has introduced Emotional Health, a centralized resource center on the Facebook app with tips and information from leading experts. The resource will be available globally, with locally relevant information from mental health officials.
Connecting People to Services
Across the apps, Facebook is rolling out a number of features to connect people to expert support and resources including:
- The World Health Organization Digital Stress Management Guide, which provides easy-to-follow techniques designed to reduce stress and promote mental well-being, now available on the WHO Health Alert chatbot on WhatsApp
- A sticker pack available on Messenger designed with the WHO, to facilitate conversations around mental health that can lead to support
- Suicide and self-harm prevention through our expanded partnership with Crisis Text Line to provide Crisis Support Over Messenger
- New mental well-being guides on Instagram, including one created in collaboration with The Jed Foundation to help teens understand how their time online may impact their emotional well-being and one from the Korea Suicide Prevention Center that provides guidance on how men can talk about mental health without shame.
New Facebook Watch show based on Mental Health
Facebook has greenlit Peace of Mind with Taraji (working title), a new talk show for Facebook Watch with Golden Globe Award-Winning Actress Taraji P. Henson and co-hosted with her longtime best friend Tracie Jade Jenkins, who is the Executive Director of Henson’s Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation. The original series will shine a light on the mental health challenges facing people today – particularly those in the Black community.
Set to premiere later this year, each episode will focus on a different mental health topic, and multiple content clips will be released per week.
Partnering with Experts to Advance Research
Facebook and The Aspen Institute have collaborated to advance the collective understanding of loneliness, social connection, technology, and how they all intersect. This effort has brought together more than 60 cross-sector experts — from academia, health, technology, nonprofit, and government — to share research and identify gaps to inform future research and potential solutions.
On Instagram, it has been observed that people can feel a pressure to present a perfect image of themselves. But at the same time, many people have found communities of support and inspiration. Facebook is conducting research to better understand the tipping point between inspiration and feeling good — and the pressure to live up to a certain standard.
Finally, Facebook will also host a listening session with mental health experts to understand how they view social comparison on Instagram and what programs, resources, and tools we can put in place to help people — especially young people — manage these pressures.
