(Today’s post is heavily inspired by a medium post by Sarah Du. I recommend for you all to read it!)
Problem: COVID-19 has been damaging for many people’s mental health. In a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1/3 of Americans reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, compared to 1/9 in Q1 of last year. SAMSHA, the National Helpline for mental health crises, has seen an 891% increase in call volume from this time last year. Employers are taking note and showing greater interest in finding solutions for their employees. As shown below, the number of earnings calls mentioning the term “mental health” skyrocketed in Q2 of this year.
Solution: I’ve been reading quite a bit about how COVID19 has been affecting individuals and changing their lives. One area where this is true more than ever is in the area of mental health. Sarah Du has thought deeply about this and actually wrote an extensive blog post about it. She identifies a few areas where technology could benefit individuals with mental health issues. I believe that a business that can successfully create digital mental health support groups (i.e. like Alcoholics Anonymous but online) would be beneficial. Du’s article can be summarized with the four points below:
Mental health is a critical issue, affecting 450 million people worldwide and 1 in 4 adults in the U.S.
Four of the biggest challenges in mental healthcare are lack of access, inconsistent quality, regulation at times constraining innovation, and discrimination.
There are many ways to segment the market. I’ve mapped six categories: self-care, chatbots, P2P, telehealth, digital therapeutics, and hardware.
Six areas I predict continued momentum are: 1) solutions for mild and moderate cases of mental illness, 2) solutions focused on prevention and upstream intervention through seamless monitoring and diagnoses, 3) the unbundling of mental health services, 4) solutions targeting youth, 5) senior-focused solutions, and 6) provider tools that monitor and improve patient outcomes.
When analyzing the mental health market, we can also look to Du’s market map:
What’s most striking about this market and about the mental health industry in general is that it doesn’t put much of a focus on grouping real-people together to learn from one another, especially not online. This is a massive area of opportunity for an insanely large market (450 million people globally).
Monetization: Subscription to be in one of these groups.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)