A former NHS neurologist says his mental health platform is saving lives – and stories from users often bring tears to his eyes.
Henry Majed says MyMynd has been developed to make a real impact on mental health during a time of overwhelming uncertainty.
He was motivated, too, by a close friend ending their own life 25 years ago, prompting him to believe there was a better way of dealing with mental health issues. “We should be able to support people, but if you don’t realise there’s a problem, you don’t seek help,” he tells TechBlast.
Enter MyMynd, a digital mental health platform that proactively identifies issues for early intervention and which featured on our sister publication BusinessCloud’s HealthTech 50 ranking last year.
Every three months, staff fill in a 10-minute online behavioural health assessment and receive a detailed understanding of mental health risks and the protective factors that can be taken. If the platform detects that one-to-one support is necessary, a professional can be in touch with the user within the hour.
The business was launched in May 2020 – peak pandemic – at a time when people were really feeling the effects of lockdown – yet plans were in place well before that. Majed, a former consultant to the World Health Organisation, had been working on a solution to the existing mental health crisis among workforces and what he calls “the overwhelming urge to endure”.
This has continued beyond COVID-19, he says, through a combination of the cost-of-living crisis, climate change crisis and remote working resulting in people feeling not like they work from home but they “live at work”.
“We can’t deal with these challenges if we don’t feel psychologically safe,” he says. “Prevention is better than cure so I wanted to build up people’s resilience so they don’t deteriorate and reach crisis. People often don’t realise there’s a problem until they hit rock bottom but if mental health support isn’t personalised then it’s not useful.”
Golf analogy
The results speak for themselves. The engagement rate with MyMynd is 60-70% of workforces due to the proactive rather than reactive approach. Rather than being guided through a website, support is tailored and data driven, highlighting when someone may need additional help – but this is all anonymous. Employers also get, anonymously, reports of trends within their workforces, enabling them to alight their wellbeing efforts around the needs of their workers.
Majed explains it using golf as an example. Say the platform was called MyPutter and took you through a series of questions, the result would be areas of your game that required attention. It might be that your overall strength needs work, or your ankles need some attention, so MyPutter would suggest some exercises you could do to make these areas stronger.
“You might not realise it but in six months’ time, without attention on these areas, you might not be able to play golf because you’ll have developed lower back pain,” Majed says. “You’d get some exercises to prevent that from being an issue now, but the platform would also, anonymously, give your golf club the trends from users that meant they could offer tailored support.
“It could show that a lot of people are struggling with green play, so here’s a curriculum the club could put in place to help people address these challenges and fill the skills gaps in the organisation. That’s how MyMynd works.”
Employers already using MyMynd include the NHS, University of Oxford, retailers and law firms – with the NHS feeding back that it had “transformed their workforce and exceeded expectations”.
Support system
Majed likens them utilising the platform to his dad always telling him to put a handkerchief in his pocket as a child. “I’d say I didn’t have a cold but his answer was ‘it’s not for you, it’s in case someone else needs it’.
“MyMynd isn’t there because you need it at that time but to be able to build up your protective factors so that you can get the support you need when you do.”
He is mindful to protect those who have offered personal feedback, but says the effects of MyMynd are life-changing. “My eyes leak sometimes because there are people alive today because of the work we do,” he says.