Case Study: Foco uncovers mental health conversation insights with Pulsar Platform

How Foco Used Social Data to Examine Mental Health

Foco worked with Pulsar Platform to study how mental health conversations were developing across Greater Manchester, with a particular focus on young people aged 14–24. The challenge was to collect and analyze a large, complex volume of social data about a sensitive topic in a way that could reveal meaningful patterns, connections, and the “energy” within the network of conversations.

Using Pulsar Platform’s TRAC audience intelligence platform, Foco was able to gather, filter, and analyze relevant historical social conversations at scale, helping shape a new methodology for the RSA study. The work identified key themes such as depression, sleep/tiredness, suicide, and anxiety, showed that women were talking more overall while young men had a higher share of voice around suicide, and revealed that online peer-to-peer resource sharing was not being matched by local service provider engagement.

Foco