TORONTO, Ontario — October 8, 2025 — Leads & Copy — Kids Help Phone (KHP) announced a transformative shift in mental health support, integrating human connection with generative AI to set a new benchmark for care in the digital age. This announcement comes one year after introducing acceleratorKHP as a catalyst for youth mental health innovation in Canada. Since 2020, KHP has interacted with young people more than 22 million times amid a mental health crisis where suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people in Canada.
Justin Scaini, Group Head and Executive Vice President, Strategy, Innovation and Transformation, notes that technology redefines how young people relate to their world, with generative AI transforming how youth seek information, communicate, and engage. KHP is building a new standard of care through acceleratorKHP, leveraging clinical infrastructure, real-time data, research, AI, and partnerships to ensure youth can access help whenever and wherever they need it.
The GenAI tool, developed through acceleratorKHP, will offer a personalized experience built with and for young people, providing choice, flexibility, safety, and credibility, utilizing over 50 million anonymized data points from conversations with youth. The tool appropriately assesses risk levels and initiates the right steps to keep the young person safe, with a trained KHP clinical professional available 24/7.
Alisa Simon, Group Head and Executive Vice President, e-Mental Health Transformation and Clinical Services, emphasizes KHP’s commitment to blending technology with empathy, privacy, and safety. The models are trained on KHP’s diverse data set, integrated with clinical frameworks and quality assurance processes, ensuring support meets the pace of innovation and matches the needs of young people across the country.
The GenAI tool is still in early development, with the vision to connect young people to the support they need, when they need it most.
Fast Facts:
- 75% of service users tell KHP something they’ve never told anyone before
- Since the start of 2020, KHP has had more than 22 million interactions with service users across Canada
- Last year, 49 per cent of youth said that if they had not reached out to KHP, they would have ignored the issue or hoped it went away, which is a significant barrier to good mental health
For more information, please contact media@kidshelpphone.ca
Source: Kids Help Phone
