Free online mental health support tool built by NHS psychologists launches this week. A free online mental health support tool built by volunteer frontline NHS psychologists, has launched today. (www.helpers.tools) “As the severity of the pandemic grew, I saw that mental health services need to adapt to meet this unprecedented challenge. Offering accessible support that reaches out to people is vital.” - Sarah Hellegren, a frontline NHS worker The mental health impact of COVID-19 has been described as a “slow motion disaster”. In response to rising anxiety across society, a group of psychologists from the NHS and academics from the University of Westminster have volunteered their time to build a free tool providing psychological support for anybody who needs it. Psychological support services worldwide are experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand and the NHS - where waiting times for mental health services are already measured in months - is struggling to meet this pressing need. Stepping into this breach are the helpers tools (www.helpers.tools) - a free 6 week course of support delivered over email that is launching today. Combining short and simple behavioural nudges with longer weekly sessions designed to be used by two or more people in conversation, the helpers tools are a blueprint enabling a community to provide crucial psychological support for itself - without needing to wait. “This huge change we are all experiencing together is turning up the heat on all the problems we had become used to juggling as part of a busy life. Even if you have never considered yourself someone who has ‘mental health problems’ this stuff affects everyone. We built helpers to provide crucial tools for building resilience to rapidly changing circumstances” says Simon Fox, who assembled the helpers team in response to his own psychological health challenges. “A decade ago I was really unwell. I became so filled with worry that I could barely interact with the world anymore. When I became well again I promised I would help people going through similarly rough patches to not feel so alone.” The project is an entirely community led effort, and the team have all provided their time for free on top of already busy work lives. helpers is available today, for free, from www.helpers.tools.