Combined Minds

The app is split into the five main topics, depending on what the person you’re supporting is struggling with. Each topic has the same sections.

First, there’s information about what the topic is and how it affects the person who’s struggling. Some topics also have information on how it can affect the people around the person who’s struggling too.

In a section called ‘What you have to do’, there’s information about how you can support the person. For example, for anxiety, it explains how the role of loved ones is to support the person in facing their fear. For eating disorders, it explains how loved ones can gently but firmly speak up if someone is showing warning signs.

There’s a section full of suggestions for things you can do in the moment to help someone. The app calls these activities. You can add suggestions to ‘my activities’ so you can find them quickly in future. If you add a suggestion to ‘my activities’, you can rate how helpful it is and add notes.

The ‘Further help’ section has links to helpful websites and helplines you can call. It also lists some books that some people might find helpful.

Finally, the ‘Look after myself’ section has top tips for taking time to take care of yourself, because that’s important too. The tips are split into ‘family’ and ‘friends’.

As well as all this topic-specific information, you can create a safety plan in the app. First, you write down some things you can do to help the person you’d like to support, as well as some things you can do to support yourself. The app gives you some suggestions to get you started with ideas. Next, you create a list of helpful people, websites, or numbers you can go to if you need support. You can go back and edit your safety plan later to update it.

If someone you care about is struggling with their mental health, it can be difficult to know what to do while also taking care of yourself. The app is full of information and resources to help you manage.

It uses a ‘strengths-based’ approach, which it says has been shown to be effective in recovery. This means it doesn’t focus on the things that the person struggling with their mental health finds difficult. Instead, it’s about people being resilient and finding ways to overcome difficulties. Friends, family members, and carers focus on the things they’re good as at, while creating the right environment to help the person who’s struggling with their mental health make positive changes.