Adolescents with a serious or chronic illness, or disability are more likely than their peers to report poor mental health. In 2008, Starlight Children’s Foundation established Livewire Online (LWO) - a moderated, safe and secure online community for young people living with illness or disability, and siblings. It is a preventative intervention that allows young people, regardless of where they live in Australia or New Zealand, to connect with others and share lived experience, and encourages positive coping.

We conducted a pre-post evaluation with LWO members at sign-up (T0) and 3-months later (T1). At both timepoints, participants completed validated measures to assess depression and anxiety (PROMIS Emotional Distress – Depression and Anxiety), and peer-support (Cancer Peer Support Scale, adapted). At T1, participants also rated their acceptability of LWO (purpose-designed items).

Thirty-one participants have completed both timepoints (data collection still underway). At T0, participants were, on average, 15-years-old and diagnosed at 10-years-old (e.g. cancer, Anorexia Nervosa, Autism Spectrum Disorder). Most participants reported signing-up to LWO to ‘make friends’ and ‘have fun’. At T0, around half of the participants scored at least ‘mild’ depression (48%) and anxiety (44%). Depression, anxiety, and peer-support scores did not change over time. However, most participants rated LWO as ‘useful’ and ‘relevant’, with the main benefit being the opportunity to connect with others “who have gone through similar experiences and understand what it's like” and to learn about how others cope. Participants expressed the challenges of not being able to see friends and increased health anxiety due to COVID, which resulted in increased use of LWO.

Our data indicate that LWO is an acceptable intervention. While we did not find any statistically significant changes over time, LWO does appear to benefit members and may prevent worsening mental health. LWO may be especially valuable to members during COVID.