Covid-19. Mental health. New opportunities

The Covid-19 pandemic is deeply connected with mental health. It is exacerbating the current problem due to lockdown. Recently the Crew and I had to look at the problem for a number of our health insurance partners. 

You will find below a few of the findings and conclusions we collected. You can also read a full viewpoint here. It is certainly an interesting area with lots of opportunities for creativity and innovative design.

Covid-19 & the mental health issue

It is not surprising that in many cultures, mental health remains a taboo. This state of affairs frequently prevents sufferers from seeking or accessing the assistance and treatment they need.

Among other key metrics, surveys in the UK market show that 62% of mental health sufferers do not get the treatment they need.

Mental health and home-working

Besides introducing new sources of anxiety, stress and depression into our lives, the pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues in other ways too — social-distancing measures have led to increased levels of isolation and it has become harder to access key services. In June, a global survey revealed that 67% of countries had experienced disruptions to counseling and psychotherapy services. Meanwhile, over a third of respondent countries reported disruptions to emergency intervention programs.

As I shared previously, having seen the benefits of remote working, many companies are considering transitioning to a long-term work-from-home setup. This requires a new adaptive type of leadership and awareness.

However, even though emerging remote and collaborative technologies have made it possible for companies to overcome the technological hurdles of remote working, few businesses have fully considered the consequences on their employee’s mental health as highlighted in this Raconteur Infographic.

Source: Raconteur

The growth ventures addressing mental health amid the pandemic

Many growth ventures have looked at the problem from a variety of angles.

Mental health telemedicine is, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the health markets that had the greatest impact on the problem so far. 100s of mental health telemedicine startups have already received millions of dollars in funding to accelerate their work. Many of these low-touch businesses facilitate both online and offline patient care. 

The leading venture in the mental health telemedicine space is US-based Mindstrong, which provides an app for text-based cognitive behavioral therapy for people with mental illness. It combines a smartphone, a digital platform while engaging leading therapists and psychiatrists with structured messaging sessions to support each patient. The venture raised $160 million. The latest raise was in May 2020.

Employee-focused venture Dialogue is also a top 5 mental health venture whose purpose is to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and help build a happy culture. It provides a telemedicine platform for employees and patients to manage their mental health conditions through an online platform that helps them virtually consult with their nurses and practitioners via video conferencing tools and help dispatch e-prescriptions and specialist doctor referrals. Dialogue raised a total of $88m with the most recent raise in July 2020.

Several private and public sector organizations are already working hard to lessen the pandemic's broader mental health impact at very affordable prices. One of the companies I find interesting is 7Chairs, an online support and counseling service. Professionally-led support groups are an important coping tool for people dealing with financial, health, and isolation pressures. 

A venture which takes a more segmented approach to mental health is WellTrack. The services of this Canadian venture were designed specifically to support student mental health during the pandemic. Offering stress and mood-tracking, relaxation sessions, and regular assessments, WellTrack aims to help one of the demographics most exposed to pandemic uncertainty. 

A venture accelerated via our Hartford InsurTech Hub acceleration programming includes pandemic-oriented mental health startup, Wysa. The platform provides an AI-driven wellness app that helps users deal with stress, depression, and anxiety. The Wysa app responds to users’ messages by automatically generated responses or connects users to a real personal therapist when needed. The team raised nearly $4m and is progressing its proposition with great partnerships and well-known BigTech supporters! 

More ventures were featured in our blog, which we intend to update as we received more insight from our great network of ventures.

A complex challenge, but one worth solving 

When it comes to the nexus of mental health and Covid-19, it’s clear that focusing on and really understanding users' particular needs is not only a key but also an evolving requirement.

There are so many ways we could seek to address mental health by looking at the larger health issues and key root causes while leveraging digital in the process. There is certainly an opportunity to align employee health strategy by deploying digital capabilities, particularly when aiming to engage and attract a younger generation. Mental health today is gradually emerging among a variety of ecosystems’ benefits.

With approximately 70% of mental health propositions still emerging, it’s clear that new solutions are still being shaped, refined and positioned to tackle better the existing contradictions between costly face to face services and engaging online and personalized low-touch platform services.

Here is a quote that Alex Devoto shared with me last week:

It is about adding varied breathing techniques, guided meditation, calming videos and positive imagery to stimulate the brain. Some of these triggers may include a variety of comforting and well-curated pictures to trigger the happy hormones.

Looking forward to reading comments about the issue.

You can also read the full brief here.