Posted on 05/26/2022 at 8:17 p.m.,
Reading 2 mins.
There are more than 100,000 health applications, according to the Haute Autorité de Santé. Chill Pill is one of them. His goal ? Provide psychological support to young girls and women through support groups.
We often have the idea that support groups are reserved for certain specific issues such as people affected by bereavement or those struggling against addiction. A received idea that Hayley Caddes hopes to abolish thanks to its new application, chill pill. The principle: to create a safe and welcoming online community for adolescent girls and young women to talk about their mental health and support each other.
A specific model: Alcoholics Anonymous
Hayley Caddes used her own experience with Alcoholics Anonymous, whose meetings she attended between the ages of 16 and 22, to create Chill Pill. “A.A. has been around for almost 100 years, it’s the most successful mental health community in the world, and it’s run by alcoholics, for alcoholics. There’s a lot to learn from model AA”she said in a statement.
The application she imagined follows the same operation: the members of Chill Pill must only talk about their own experiences, not to make fun, not to criticize and not to judge. No question either of providing advice to other users of the application. “Being part of this community is about feeling welcome and safe, no matter what background you come from or what trauma you’ve been through”explains a 16-year-old girl.
As a good reflection of its time, Chill Pill offers its members the opportunity to participate in remote support groups. Anonymity is required and participants speak through the microphone of their smartphone. It’s also possible to anonymously post your daily thoughts and musings on the app’s news feed. “Our app was built by our community, for our community”summarizes Hayley Caddes.
A young and inclusive community
The community in question is made up of teenage girls and young women, but also members of Generation Z who identify as non-binary or gender fluid. These populations have seen their mental health deteriorate with the pandemic, much more than their elders. 25% of Z, these young people born between 1997 and 2010, say they feel more emotionally distressed, two years after the start of the health crisis, according to the consulting firm McKinsey. Only 13% of millennials and Gen Xers say the same.
Chill Pill was launched last summer to specifically meet the needs of these young people. The mobile application, available on iOS, has claimed nearly 500 active members. Hayley Caddes and her team hope to see this figure increase in the coming months, and reach a more exclusively English-speaking audience.