Solving mental health issues with technology — let us introduce you to Mindler
Recently, a Swedish politician from the mental healthcare unit publicly criticized the government’s efforts to reduce mental health issues. Despite an increase in resources allocated, mental health issues in Sweden continue to grow and now represent over 70% of sick leave costs, 8 billion euros per year. Public spending to prevent illness and cut the increasing costs have doubled from 700 million to 1.5 billion euros since 2009, resulting in many projects and initiatives but unfortunately little impact.
Mental health issues are a growing problem
Mental health issues are increasing, especially among young people in ages 10 to 24 and particularly among the female population. The Swedish Health Authorities (Socialstyrelsen) publishes a study every year that sheds light upon mental illness in numbers. It shows steady high shares of the population expressing issues with depression or anxiety (Graph 1) where a staggering 45% of adult women say they are suffering from such issues.
Graph 2 shows the share of young people with a diagnosis and at least one contact with the mental healthcare system or at least one collection of medicine. The share has grown with about 6 percentage points for women and 4 for men between 2006 and 2016. In addition, since the population is growing, absolute numbers grow even more.
Swedish statistics are not unique. The size of the issue looks similar around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 35% and 50% of people with severe mental health problems in developed countries, and 76–85% in developing countries, receive no treatment. In the UK, the Mental Health Foundation writes in its 2016 report that they are surveying the population of 16 years and older and 19% of all surveyed express they are feeling anxious or depressed. So, we are probably just scratching the surface.
Technology-enabled care is the solution
Since there are evidence-based methods for treating depression, anxiety, addiction, and other common mental health issues, one can only conclude that access to care is not good enough and the delivery is not efficient enough to meet the increased demand.
That is why we are thrilled to introduce you to our latest investment — Mindler.
Mindler delivers mental healthcare via mobile or web, available for everyone. At the moment they have about 100 certified psychologists on their digital platform giving access to care within 24 hours wherever the patient might be — at home, traveling or maybe at work. A huge difference compared to the current situation where patients sometimes wait for months to get an appointment or have to travel far to a clinic.
The founding team consists of Rickard Färdig, PhD in Psychiatry, Rickard Lagerqvist, MD and serial entrepreneur, and Johannes Hatem who is a Psychologist with long experience from CBT-treatment. Since the first time we met these guys, we have been truly impressed by their passion to change mental healthcare with technology, and we are super excited supporters!
Digital mental healthcare is happening and in recent years we have seen many projects involving AI, health assistants, online therapists, health coaching, mindfulness etc. who all play their part — but one might wonder why we can’t see significant improvement in health stats already? We think one key reason is that many tech entrepreneurs underestimate the need for human interaction.
I recently spoke to a CEO, who’s name i cannot mention, at a leading private mental healthcare provider about the many bots and AI-health coaches we have met. He said:
“You will never get people to go there, and if they do, you won’t get them to stay. You must understand that mental healthcare is about changing behaviors and that is never easy”
What he said is partly true. Certainly, there are segments where little human assistance could do all or some of the work already, such as minor health issues or supporting a change of habits — but generally, human interaction does make a difference in changing behaviors. An analogy is organizational change, where millions of consultants around the world struggle to lead change programs because changing the way people are working is just difficult. This might change looking ten or more years into the future, and to stay competitive, companies need to continuously collect and utilize large amounts of data.
Mindler is working with CBT psychologists using evidence-based methods to treat their patients. They use digital tools to support treatment whenever possible and video-meetings when needed. Data helps them improve care over time, and lengthy administrative processes are being automated to enable professionals to be efficient and help as many as possible. We think the team has made the right tech vs. human tradeoffs. After all, if you are ill, the first thing you want to do is to talk to a professional who can help you to get better.
Mindler is currently recruiting to multiple positions, reach out to rickard.lagerqvist@mindler.se for more info. Services are currently available in Sweden, check them out here: www.mindler.se
