Sidekick: An app to track and boost your mental wellbeing
The Sidekick app, which was developed by a community of volunteer collaborators, consists of a collection of exercises, tools, advice and tips to boost your mental health and wellbeing, as well as enabling you to build your own personal toolkit of resources to access whenever you need. Sidekick is inclusive and empowering as they recognise that all brains are different and therefore everyone manages their mental wellbeing differently. It’s completely free to access, so why not download it and try it out!
On the app, you can score and calculate your current mental state and use the mood journal to reflect and keep track of how you are feeling. You can also explore exercises and resources based on what you would like to achieve: relaxing more, coping better with stress, sleeping better, reducing anxiety and many more options. The app provides access to guided programmes and inspiring quotes to support your wellbeing goals, and you can track everything to see how you are doing and how your mental wellbeing has hopefully improved over time! This can be very beneficial when you’re going through grief as having the ability to track your progress can provide a sense of accomplishment. Although the tools within the app are not specific to grief, we each need a mixture of tools in our toolbox and these are sure to help with the common aspects like lack of sleep and anxiety.
Sidekick also has a great podcast that provides a platform for guests to share their stories, with the aim to reduce the stigma around mental illness. With these open and honest conversations, the Sidekick creators hope to encourage more people to speak out in order to normalise these kinds of discussions. The podcast episodes cover a variety of topics such as addiction, self-harm, grief and depression to show the extent of mental health issues across our society. Our co-founders Amelia & Emma are featured on an episode focusing around suicide bereavement!
The blog section of the Sidekick website is filled with insights, tools and tips from specialists and those with lived experience of mental health issues. There are various helpful posts with advice on subjects such as how to talk to someone in emotional distress, exercise and mental wellbeing, and ways to deal with grief during a pandemic.
