THE FUTURE OF MENTAL HEALTH
Changing Lives Through Live Video
There are certain applications and industries for which the use of live streaming video is not only a no-brainer, but also a life changer. Not only is an application a natural fit for live streaming video, but it has the potential to bring major new benefits to the industry and society at large. Doing something as simple as embedding live video into an existing app can create a game changer.
One of the best examples of this is Larkr, one of a new breed of telehealth services making remote mental health care more accessible. Available to consumers via a smartphone app, anyone can experience therapy sessions via live video chat.
While we are totally pleased that Agora was chosen to power the app’s live video chat functionality, we also feel it is beyond cool how the Larkr service is making it easier and less expensive for people to find and receive mental health therapy, anywhere and anytime.
Game-Changing App
By providing patients with remote video chat therapy through their smartphones 24/7, Larkr not only is making mental health therapy more easily available for patients, but is enabling therapists to expand their practices.
The couple behind Larkr are Shawn Kernes, the founding chief technology officer for the StubHub ticket service, and his wife Chris, a practicing mental health therapist.
As Shawn Kernes notes, there are 50 million people in the U.S. that are in need of some level of mental health care, and only about 20 million of them are actually receiving it.
“In small towns with limited resources,” he adds, “it’s even more difficult to find a practitioner when you need one — not to mention the cost when you do.”
Shrinking Barriers, Expanding Boundaries
By making therapy available anytime and anywhere without the need to travel, Larkr is shrinking a number of barriers while expanding the boundaries of mental health therapy.
The round-the-clock availability of the service is a welcome new option for patients with certain types of mental health challenges and illnesses that require immediate help, such as panic attacks. In the past, the best treatment option was go to an emergency room, a less than ideal solution. Now immediate one-to-one help from a specialist is available whenever a patient needs it, from wherever the patient might be.
Asked why he chose Agora to provide the live video capability for the Larkr app, Shawn Kernes said what sold him on Agora were all the things we at Agora work so hard to bring to life — great video quality, solid reliability, and the ability to support large numbers of sessions at scale.
While hearing a customer praise our technology makes our day, we also are extremely pleased to see services like Larkr put our technology to use in ways that change the world for the better. Helping a client create a service that makes such a big a difference in people’s lives really does put a bounce in our step, and make us want to go even further.
