Who supports the supporters?
Relatives and close friends of people with mental health conditions make a vital and systemically important contribution to our society – often quietly and on their own.
Together with the relatives’ movement “Stand by You Switzerland” and the Together Institute, Panter developed a community platform where relatives can connect, share experiences and support one another. Since its launch in autumn 2025, it has grown into an active online community – built using the methodology of “Community Weaving” and operated with the support of artificial intelligence.
2.1 million relatives: the invisible backbone of care
What psychiatric care services cannot cover is often taken on by relatives and close friends. According to a recent Sotomo study, 2.1 million people in Switzerland are currently supporting someone close to them with a mental health condition – almost one in three adults. 73 percent experience this role as a burden, and more than half believe there are too few support services for relatives themselves. For many, connecting with people in similar situations would provide the most effective relief – yet these encounters rarely happen in everyday life.
This is where Stand by You Switzerland comes in. The national relatives’ movement aims to make the role of relatives and close friends more visible, heard and felt. With the community platform, it wanted to create a place where relatives could meet one another: not a substitute for therapy, not an advice portal, but a moderated, low-threshold space for mutual support – a Caring Community.
The real challenge: activity instead of an abandoned platform
The greatest challenge in projects like this is not the technology. Many digital community platforms start out promisingly but quickly lose momentum after launch because posts go unanswered and new members struggle to find their way in. The project team therefore put the development of the community – rather than the software – at the centre.
The methodological foundation was provided by Michel Bachmann’s “Community Weaving” approach at the Together Institute. It describes a community using the image of a campfire: at the centre is a shared purpose, surrounded by different circles – from highly engaged members on the inside to newcomers on the outside, who gradually move closer. Based on this model, concrete roles, formats and processes were developed for the future community.
Participatory from the start: community first, software second
In joint workshops, relatives, representatives of the relatives’ organisation and Panter first developed the “Minimum Viable Community”: the target groups, purpose, values and roles of the future community. Only then was the platform created – iteratively and closely aligned with the needs of the community.
One distinctive feature of the project was its co-production approach: on the Stand by You Switzerland side, all members of the project team and sounding board contributed on a voluntary basis – with a level of commitment and dedication that had a major impact on the project. This is unusual for a software project; for this one, it was essential.
The platform: features for exchange, orientation and connection
The onboarding process is deliberately designed to be simple and accessible. Anyone who registers – using their first name or a pseudonym, with or without a photo – is personally welcomed by a host shortly afterwards: “Hello, it’s great to have you here.” From there, members are guided towards people with similar experiences, thematic groups and physical events in their region.
The custom-built solution is available as a Progressive Web App on the web as well as on iOS and Android devices, and includes the following core features:
- Anonymous registration: Members decide how much they want to reveal about themselves – pseudonyms and profiles without photos are possible.
- Welcome and support from hosts: Experienced relatives welcome new members, guide them through the platform and provide support.
- Thematic groups: Moderated groups – for example on “Depression” or “Parents of affected children” – bring together members with similar experiences.
- 1:1 chats and newsfeed: Direct conversations and a shared feed connect members around common topics and experiences.
- Events: A calendar connects the online community with in-person meetings and regional offerings – creating a bridge to the offline world.
- “I see you” reaction: Specially designed reactions allow members to express empathy and recognition when words are difficult to find.
- AI-assisted moderation: AI-supported review of posts assists the hosting team in the background.
”Building a platform for relatives is less a technical challenge than an exercise in truly understanding the people behind it. That is exactly what Panter AG achieved – resulting in a solution where platform, integration and community work fit together seamlessly.
Sören LönborgCo-Project Lead Community Platform, Stand by You Switzerland
Volunteer hosts at the centre, AI in the background
The community is carried by the hosting team: around a dozen experienced relatives who volunteer their time to welcome, moderate and connect members, coordinated by a “Host of the Hosts”. One figure illustrates just how effective this role can be: a single host has personally supported more than eighty relatives since launch.
Artificial intelligence deliberately plays a supporting role – in two areas. During development, AI tools made the custom-built solution around 30 percent faster and more cost-efficient to create. In day-to-day operation, AI automatically reviews posts for potential violations of the community guidelines or content that does not reflect the relatives’ perspective, and alerts the hosting team when something appears noteworthy. The hosts themselves decide whether and how to respond.
From development project to regular operation
The platform went live ahead of schedule in autumn 2025 and within the agreed budget. The development project has since been completed, and the solution is now in regular operation. Since launch, an active community of several hundred members has emerged; around one third of them are active on the platform every week – a remarkably high figure for a young online community. Thousands of messages and “I see you” reactions have been exchanged, and almost two hundred physical events have taken place around the online community. Technically, the platform is designed for further growth and can support several thousand users.
”In 30 years of software and service development, my work has rarely felt as meaningful as it did in this project.
Flavio TroleseCo-Project Lead Community Platform, Panter AG
- Start with WHO: A community begins with the people, not the software. Target groups, purpose and roles are defined before the first line of code is written.
- Community Weaving from day one: Relationships, roles and rituals are built from the start – participatively, through co-production and on equal footing.
- AI as an enabler, never a replacement: Used wisely, artificial intelligence can reduce development costs and relieve the workload of volunteer hosts – but human connection remains irreplaceable.
Flavio Trolese, Mitgründer & Co-Projektleiter
Interested in how a Caring Community could also strengthen your organisation and your target groups?
Talk to Flavio and discover how methodology, people and technology can come together to create resilient communities.
