Celebrating 12 years of supporting students at the University of Sheffield and their multi-year renewal with Togetherall

We are thrilled to announce that students at the University of Sheffield will continue to have access to a clinically moderated mental health support resource, after 12 years of reaping benefits from the platform. Through a renewed collaboration with Togetherall, students can engage with a global community of peers, giving and getting peer support in a safe and anonymous online environment, available 24/7/365.     

Based in South Yorkshire, England, the University of Sheffield is home to more than 27,000 students. With such a large population, attending to the diverse mental health and wellbeing needs of students is no small task. Louise Knowles, UKCP Registered Psychotherapist and Head of Mental Health, Counselling, and Therapy Service at the University of Sheffield (Sheffield), and her team are always seeking new and effective ways to support the mental health of their students.  

In 2012, Sheffield partnered with Togetherall to bring students 24/7 digital peer support, anonymous for users and overseen around-the-clock by mental health practitioners. The service soon became widely used by Sheffield students, reaching underrepresented groups and those unlikely to seek help. Recent data reports that 79% of Sheffield students using Togetherall are not accessing any other forms of mental health support. Louise, who says the platform is “a trusted source of support for students”, has led the charge in furthering engagement of Togetherall on campus, finding innovative ways to promote the service to students and staff.  

“Togetherall is our university-wide universal offer to all of our students,” Louise said. “We are really pleased and proud to work in partnership with Togetherall and be in a position to offer this resource. We have a long-standing relationship with Togetherall and consider them to be a trusted and well-governed brand. This affords us and our students the confidence to continue engaging with this provision. The data tells us our students make good use of this resource, and feedback from our students highlights that Togetherall is good value for money. We are looking forward to continuing our work with Togetherall and looking at how we can increase our student uptake of this really great resource.” 

“Thanks to Louise’s strong leadership in the mental health space, she and her team have done a wonderful job successfully implementing and maintaining digital peer support in Sheffield’s community,” said Ben Locke, Ph.D., Chief Clinical Officer at Togetherall. “We are thrilled that they are renewing with Togetherall after 12 fruitful years of collaboration. We loved working alongside Louise and the University of Sheffield earlier this year on a webinar showcasing the strong alignment between Togetherall’s digital peer support and the core domains of the University Mental Health Charter. As an Assessor for the Charter, award-winning university member, and client of Togetherall’s, Louise spoke eloquently and convincingly of how digital peer support can help institutions in the UK achieve member status in the Charter and help UK higher ed collectively achieve the goal of whole-university approach.” 

“On behalf of all of us at Togetherall, we greatly value our relationship and collaboration with the University of Sheffield,” shared Togetherall CEO Matthew McEvoy. “As Louise and her team have recognized, peer support is a critical component of the mental health support continuum and meeting the core pillars of a whole-university approach. After 12 years of working together to support their students and successfully reaching those at their point of need, we look forward to providing even more individuals with mental health care through digital peer support in the years ahead.”

About Togetherall   

To date, Togetherall is available to 4.6 million students worldwide at more than 450 colleges and universities. Togetherall is the leading clinically managed, peer-to-peer, online support community where students can share what’s on their minds, anonymously, safely, and in-the-moment, 24/7/365. Students can connect through shared lived experiences with a global network of peers, backed by the safeguarding of real, live, mental health practitioners overseeing the community around-the-clock. These practitioners empower individuals in peer support and foster and maintain a safe, vibrant environment.    

If you are interested in offering safe and scalable ways to support your students’ mental health, contact us to find out more about Togetherall’s online community.