NEWSFLASH: Pinterest to add new mental health resources to its platform
In the next few weeks, Pinterest users will notice a positive change to the website in the form of mental health wellness initiatives. Rolling out for mobile users using iOS and Android (version 7.25), the website will now offer short self-help activities natively on its platform.
The initiative was created with the expertise of mental health experts from the Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, among others.
Users who search terms like “work anxiety,” for example, will be presented with a series of short, emotionally-focused wellbeing activities such as deep-breathing, relaxation and self-compassion. These activities are guided and cover a variety of emotions, from anxiety and depression to general coping skills.
“Over the years we’ve worked with experts to make it easy for people in distress to access supportive resources,” Pinterest’s product manager Annie Ta wrote on the platform’s blog. “Together we wanted to create a more compassionate, actionable experience that tries to address a broader emotional spectrum of what Pinners may be looking for.”
For more serious search terms like ‘self-harm,’ Pinterest will prompt the user to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the United States, or Samaritans in the UK. Similarly, searching for eating disorder tags now sends users to the National Eating Disorder Association’s website.
In the interest of privacy, Pinterest users’ interactions with the wellbeing resources are kept private and separate from their account. This means that pin recommendations and advertisements won’t be affected if a user chooses to use the wellbeing activities.
The collection of wellbeing activities are set to roll out in the next few weeks to mobile Pinterest users.