This morning’s headlines focused on research suggesting that the new generation of anti-depressant drugs aren’t as successful as was previously thought for tackling mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.

With more than 31 million prescriptions written in the UK for anti-depressants in 2006, mental well being is a serious political issue. And – based on today’s news at least – the Government appear to be backing the right horse: Health Secretary Alan Johnson came out firmly in favour of improving access to counselling services across the UK when he pledged an extra £170 million to be spent on ‘talking therapies’ to help people tackle depression.

If person-to-person support is so important for mental well-being and recovery from depression-related illnesses, could the online social space created by the web complement such therapies?

This might be especially useful for young adults and children. It has been claimed that as many as one in 10 young people suffer from mental health problems in the UK. Yet this is also a generation growing up deeply immersed in communications technology from an increasingly early age. Over 90% of UK teenagers belong to a social network, for example, and a third of those keep at least four separate profiles running at once.

The fear that technology and youth is a dangerous mix has reared its head again in the last few weeks with social networking sites in the firing line following a number of highly-publicised teenage suicides in Bridgend, South Wales. Questions were raised over whether such sites encouraged copy-cat acts in the area by romanticising the idea of suicide.

Yet surely the way young people use technology can be turned into something positive for children and young adults? Danah Boyd’s brilliant work at Harvard’s Berkman Centre in the US focuses on the importance of online interaction for young people. She argues the web is pretty effective at reinforcing offline bonds between people and that the social space it creates is a great place for young people to explore who they are and who they want to be away from adult eyes – all really important parts of finding your feet in the big wide world.

So if there’s a need for better talking-based therapies and person-to-person support to improve the mental well being of the UK, how could the tech-literacy of youth be harnessed to provide support for those at risk of or suffering from mental illness?

Take a look at an idea for the Social Innovation Camp sent in by Kerri Jones for a Health and well being centre. Could this be a starting point? How could a tool be integrated into the ways in which young people are already using technology?