Case Study
How Hope for the Day partnered with WeLearn to bring life-saving mental health training online
- 01 Dec, 2025
- 8 min read
In this case study
Table of Contents
Mental health is a tough topic for most people to discuss. Hope for the Day’s “Things We Don’t Say” course helps learners recognize the importance of pushing past social stigmas associated with mental health — and gives them the tools to have conversations that could save lives.
This is a story about breaking down barriers: barriers to accessing mental health education, and the social barriers that keep people from talking openly when it matters most.
About Hope for the Day
Hope for the Day (HFTD) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention and mental health education. Their approach is refreshingly direct — they use real-world language (yes, sometimes including profanity) to cut through the awkwardness that often surrounds conversations about mental health.
HFTD’s core message is simple: It’s OK to not be OK. Their programs equip everyday people with the knowledge and confidence to recognize when someone is struggling and to start a conversation that could make all the difference.
Before partnering with WeLearn, HFTD delivered their training exclusively through in-person, instructor-led sessions. The programs worked well, but there was a limitation: they could only reach people who could physically attend.
The challenge: Expanding reach beyond the classroom
HFTD’s in-person model had served them well, but it couldn’t scale to meet the growing need for mental health education. Sessions could only serve a finite number of learners in specific locations, and people who needed the training couldn’t always attend when it was scheduled.
There was another challenge too. Some of HFTD’s most powerful teaching moments relied on physical demonstration — like a signature demonstration using a soda bottle to visualize mental pressure. How do you translate that to a screen without losing the impact?
HFTD needed a way to bring their training to anyone, anywhere, while preserving the authenticity and emotional resonance that made their programs effective in the first place.
The course: "Things We Don't Say"
The partnership between HFTD and WeLearn produced a custom eLearning course built in Articulate Rise 360 for mobile accessibility. The course guides learners through understanding mental health as a spectrum, recognizing warning signs in themselves and others, and taking action when someone is struggling.
It gets practical too. Learners receive concrete guidance on starting a difficult conversation — how to position their body, what phrases to use, and a strategy for handling a crisis. The course also connects learners directly to support resources, including the National Suicide Hotline and HFTD’s own library, via embedded links and QR codes.
The learning objectives are clear:
- Describe your role in suicide prevention
- Identify warning signs and steps to take to address mental health challenges
- Recall tools and ideas to get help for yourself or to share with someone else
The target audience is intentionally broad: anyone aged 18 and up. HFTD wanted to meet people where they are — whether at work, at school, or on their phone.
Building it together
The real work happened in the details: figuring out how to replicate HFTD’s signature teaching moments in a digital environment.
One of HFTD’s most memorable in-person demonstrations involved shaking a soda bottle to show how mental pressure builds until it explodes unless the pressure is released. WeLearn and HFTD experimented with several approaches: video of someone physically demonstrating, animated slideshows. They landed on motion-graphic flip cards that delivered an equivalent, powerful learning moment. The solution required creativity and iteration, but the result preserved the impact of the original.
To accommodate different learning preferences, WeLearn wove interactive elements throughout — hotspots, accordions, slideshows, and knowledge check questions placed directly after video content. This layered approach helped reinforce messages and gave learners multiple ways to engage with difficult material.
Pilot launch: Learning from real learners
Before the full public launch, HFTD and WeLearn ran a pilot program. The feedback shaped several meaningful improvements:
- Accessibility enhancements. The course had passed strict accessibility standards, but a colorblind learner in the pilot group identified areas where the experience could be better. These changes were made before the full launch.
- Deeper explanations. Pilot participants flagged places where additional context would strengthen the impact. Real-life examples and clarifications were added throughout.
- Refocused visuals. A café scene originally showed an entire room full of people — a barista, a drink menu, tables of customers. Based on feedback, the graphic was refocused on the two friends at the center of the scene, with explanatory hotspots added to bring their conversation to life.
Proving that difficult conversations can be taught online
“Things We Don’t Say” demonstrated something important: training on sensitive, deeply human topics doesn’t have to lose its power when it moves online. With the right partner and a willingness to experiment, HFTD brought their life-saving message to learners they never could have reached before.
The award-winning course is just the beginning. HFTD and WeLearn are now working to translate it into multiple languages and to develop coaching guides for employers and instructors — supporting more open conversations about mental health in workplaces and schools, and continuing to break down the stigma that keeps people from asking for help.
Because sometimes the things we don’t say are the things that matter most.
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