Friendships play an important role in helping us feel connected and supported. Our friends and those in our social circles are often some of the first people we might open up to – they’re people we have chosen to be in our lives or are in our circles because of school, university, workplaces, extracurriculars etc. Despite the important part friends play in providing support to each other, the role of friendship has not yet received the acknowledgement it deserves in research, treatment or policy.
To understand on a deeper level the actual role friends play in helping each other, we partnered with Western Sydney University researchers Dr Benjamin Hanckel, Dr Jasbeer Musthafa and Amelia Henry, and clinical researcher Dr Erin Dolan, to examine the help young people are providing each other.
Tom Riley, batyr’s Research and Policy Manager said, “94% of young people in our study said they have helped a friend through mental ill-health. Additionally, almost 70% reported that during tough times, they felt most supported by friends, more so than parents or mental health practitioners.” Young people are spending on average 182 hours a year helping their friends, which includes recognising when professional help is needed, and connecting them to more formal pathways of care too. “Previous research has focused mostly on pathways for young people into professional help for mental ill-health. This research brings into focus the central role that young people’s friendships are playing in mental health care.”
The findings of this report will be influential in a number of ways. Not only will it inform batyr’s program development to enhance our impact, but it has the potential to influence clinical practices, policy development and the education system. Gaining an understanding of how, where, and why young people are supporting their peers and the strategic ways they tailor their support for each individual friend, demonstrates elements that can add value to the way adults support young people for greater impact. This research also brings to the surface the ways young people taking on the responsibility of a supporter can be supported themselves.
batyr’s Head of Global Impact, Stephanie Vasiliou believes this research project will also have influence beyond the findings. “Working in a multidisciplinary team on this project enabled a mix of perspectives and skills to come together and think innovatively about how research can be conducted and translated into practice. This report has been centred on the real experiences of young people with their voices at the heart of it. It is our hope that not only does this report progress knowledge about friends helping friends, but it can inspire research approaches that reflect and respect the diverse skills and perspectives each stakeholder brings to the table.”
We encourage people to check out the report and think about how it might apply in their own settings to better support young people doing this work. This might include:
- Integrating into clinical practice elements young people successfully do to help their friends.
- Shaping policy development that recognises the ways young people can be equipped and supported with what they need around them to continue helping their peers in safe ways.
- Implement measures in classrooms to ensure not only young people going through tough times are considered, but the wellbeing of those helping their friends are too.
- Inspiring future research that brings together multidisciplinary teams with diverse skill sets.
To read the findings, recommendations and resources suggested by young people on what can help them support their friends, click here.