Meet Belle, the Beyond The Label helpbot that connects the public to mental health resources and helplines.
It saw almost four times the users during the circuit breaker period, said a spokesman for the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), which is behind the Beyond The Label campaign that seeks to reduce the stigma attached to those with mental illness.
Some 514 users engaged with Belle in April and May, compared with 132 in February and March.
Last month (June 2020), the NCSS partnered with Google, so that searches with mental health-related keywords such as “stressed by Covid” or “mental health Covid” on its search engine will receive a prompt with tips on how to keep mentally healthy, a link to more information on Beyond The Label, and access to Belle.
Currently, Belle can be accessed only via Facebook Messenger.
The NCSS plans to improve Belle’s user experience and accessibility, for example, by providing a Web-based option to allow users to access Belle online.
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 10 July 2020