No one should face it alone.
He@lio is safe, always-available mental health support for young people ages 13 to 24. There in the hard moments, and ready to connect them to real human help when it matters.
In active development · Tested at the University of Washington · Youth-led since 2021
Read how He@lio began
Teens & Students
Ages 13–24
Stress From
School, home, social life
Looking For
Relief, habits, reflection
Why this matters
Young people are facing a mental health crisis, and the system cannot keep up. Care is expensive, waitlists run for weeks, and the hardest moments rarely happen during office hours. Millions have nowhere to turn between appointments, or before they ever reach a first one.
What He@lio is
A safe, always-available companion for mental well-being, built specifically for ages 13 to 24 and powered by AI. It is not a replacement for a therapist, and it is not trying to be. It is a place to process feelings, build coping skills, and, when it matters most, connect to real human help.
Talk it through
A safe, judgment-free space to say what's on their mind, anytime.
Build coping skills
Guided activities like breathing and grounding exercises.
Reflect
Journaling with mood tracking to notice patterns over time.
Set small goals
And see progress add up over time.
Made for you
Responses adapt to your age and draw on your own journals and goals.
Stay safe
Recognizes signs of distress and points to real crisis resources.
Inside He@lio
A real, working product, not a concept. Here is what young people actually use.
24/7
availability
15
wellness activities
4
mood levels
AI Chat Support
Your safe space for mental health conversations
- Built on large language model technology with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) — references your own journals and goals to personalise responses
- Age-adaptive tone calibrated for teens (13–17), college (18–21), and young adults (22–24)
- Motivational interviewing baked in — open questions, affirmations, and reflections
- Persistent conversation threads within each session
Guided Activities
Guided activities that build healthy habits
- 15 wellness activities in total — 6 structured activities on the Activities page, with 9 more accessible through the AI chat
- Breathing exercises, grounding techniques, gratitude practice, and more
- Categorised by type, difficulty, and duration
- Streak tracking and stats to reinforce consistency
Journal & Insights
Journaling that helps you notice patterns
- Mood-tagged entries viewable by timeline, mood view, or grid
- Search by title, content, or tags
- Entries are read-only after 24 hours — preserves growth history and enables AI pattern detection
- Journal context is available to the AI chat for personalised responses
Goals & Achievements
Turn intent into progress
- SMART goal creation with due dates and progress tracking
- Completion stats, current streak, and success rate at a glance
- Achievements and badges celebrate milestones
- Goal context feeds into AI chat for accountability
Built safe, and tested
He@lio is designed safety-first for a young and vulnerable audience. When it detects signs of distress, it responds right away and points young people to real human help: 988, the Crisis Text Line, and trusted adults. It provides a bridge to real help. It does not replace professional care, and it never pretends to.
Crisis-aware
Detects safety signals and surfaces real crisis resources automatically.
Private by design
Data is user-controlled, deletable anytime, and never sold or shared.
Built deliberately
Development is evaluated at every stage before it reaches more people.
Proven at the University of Washington
He@lio was evaluated by a team of Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) students at the University of Washington as part of their Capstone project. The six-month program concluded in June 2026, examining AI safety, interaction quality, and responsible design, with the team's findings handed over to guide He@lio's continued development. In development since 2021, He@lio is grounded in supportive conversation techniques used in professional practice.
What your gift does
He@lio is working and in closed beta. Your gift funds the next stage: strengthening its safety, reaching more young people, and building it responsibly. Every stage is checked for safety before it grows.
Your support helps us reach the young people who have nowhere else to turn.
DonateShare He@lio
Pass it along to anyone who cares about youth mental health. Awareness helps young people find support before a crisis.