Studentpreneurs’ digital solution tackles mental health awareness

May represents a month dedicated to promoting mental health awareness. There are many individuals, entrepreneurs, and corporates in the community who shared their best case practice to support you in the past period of COVID-19. We took a chance to use the last week of May and share some tips and solutions with you on this topic.

We held an interview with Kenan Suljic, one of the founders of D-App, on the topic of mental health. Kenan shared their startup story with us and his opinion on the period behind us.

Tell us about your startup. What does your app do?

D-App is unique, and the first app in the world, which is created in this format. It presents a connection between an expert and a person affected or potentially affected by depression. It is used for education, prevention, and treatment of depression.

The work of the application is supervised and performed by professional persons, psychologists/psychiatrists from the health centres with whom we have signed cooperation agreements. The app is working on directly reducing the number of people affected by depressive disorders, and by doing its job, the app is reducing the number of suicides.

People come first. May you introduce us to your team?

The D-App team consists of the winners of the 2019 Start Me Up: High School competition at International Burch University. We are the creators of the world’s first application in the health system, in the field of mental health. The team consists of four young and successful people, from four different cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Amina Madžak (Konjic) — first-year student of Economics at the International Burch University. Prominent activist, successful amateur actress, and leader.

Sejo Ivković (Jablanica) — first-year student of Electrical Engineering at the International Burch University. Designer, photographer, and prominent activist.

Muamer Galešić (Donji Vakuf) — first-year student of International Relations and European Studies at the International Burch University. Successful activist and a very creative person who animates people very smoothly.

Kenan Suljić (Srebrenik) — 4th-grade student at the Tuzla Secondary Medical School. Best high school student in Bosnia and Herzegovina, leader and activist.

How has COVID-19 affected you so far? Any lessons learned?

In every bad period, we learn a lot. Now we have a chance to see how important it is to be together, to support and help each other. We can endure a lot physically, but in the end, it is the mental state that decides our future.

I hope that in the coming years, even without a pandemic, we will be empathetic and compassionate because when we have everything, it is essential to stay the way we are, to be good people, and think of others and ourselves. Everything else happens and passes, but the goodness from our lives never goes away if it becomes a part of us.

We are curious. What do you miss the most during the crisis?

We as activists, but also as a nation in general, miss socializing and seminars the most. All the pleasure is in going to education and meeting other people. With activism and without activism, we stay here and act online.

However, no matter how much we miss the standard interface and socializing, it is crucial to stay at home and contribute to solving the current situation, but also to create a better tomorrow.

Final question. What do you would advise young people to take care of regarding mental health?

As strong and stable as we are physically, it is vital to take care of our mental health.

In the life we live, it is essential to be brave, to talk about our problems and current situations, and never to be afraid to seek help. We all need to be aware that nothing is more valuable than our lives. Therefore, let’s support D-App, spread this way of helping all countries of the world, and go to psychologists.

We are responsible for our health.

TOGETHER TOWARDS BETTER FUTURE!

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We are a small team dedicated to the startup community of Sarajevo, who collects entrepreneurial stories for sarajevo.tech and organizes awesome fireside chats and panels within Startup Grind Sarajevo. Stay updated for more events and stories and subscribe here.