Reel In Support- A good Attempt at a Hard Problem

 I really enjoyed the Reel In Support project. I think they attempted to solve an incredibly big and overlooked problem in our world-mental health. Their solution is the equivalent of a band-aid, in the best possible way. Yes, bandaids are usually temporary patches, however they also prevent a wound from getting infected and facilitate the early healing steps. They said that right now a third of people that report feeling symptoms of depression an/or anxiety do not receive any care for it. That is such a huge number for such a scary problem. 
I think many people that were critical of the idea were not recognizing it for what it was. It is not a permanent or even long term solution. However, it is a good temporary solution that could help save lives until everyone has healthcare and the stigma against mental illnesses is gone. These two critical things could take a couple of decades to happen, and until they do people will continue to not get treatment. Reel in Support is a good bandaid to get our society to that time. It can prevent suicides and offer some support to the people in pain. I think they need to make a few adjustments to their plan-including some kind of identity verification to prevent trolls from having access to the perfect victims for cyber bullying. I also think they should include some kind of online-certification/training similar to what the crisis center and suicide hotline volunteers go through for the people offering assistance on the site. However, this is a good way to get some support and help to those people that will not receive care otherwise because of money or embarrassment. Their website and logo were beautifully designed, and they had very good intentions. I think with some adjustment this could be a great modern-cyber aid to mental health problems. 
This idea may not ever actually come to pass- because of the legality of the times we live in and the fear that nothing online is ever truly private- but that doesn't mean it is a bad idea. I have hopes that simply educating people on how real and common mental illnesses are will help the problem this group tried to solve. I feel like if they pivoted more towards an education/awareness aspect they could still do a lot of good. If they geared the chat rooms to offer short term tips on being relaxed and dealing with stress, and then geared the website to send you to pro-bono trained counselors in the city for a 30 minute session or something then it could really work! I feel like that is a more realistic direction for this type of website, but I still thought their idea and passion was great.