Making Mental Health More Accessible
Supporting LinkMentalHealth through ACCESS Bright Ideas Pitch
LinkMentalHealth is the navigational solution to the complexity that pervades the mental health system. They are a recipient of the 2019 ACCESS Bright Ideas Pitch.
The online platform matches people to mental health services that best fit their specific needs (ethnicity, sexual orientation, specialty, and more) and connects them to the calendars of therapists, reducing the process from months to minutes. For employers looking to reduce absenteeism and disability claim costs, they provide a company portal that integrates their health benefits and proactively gets employees the help they need.
“Most people know about their dental coverage and plans but more than 75% of people don’t know about the mental health benefits offered through their schools or workplaces.”
LinkMentalHealth co-founder Radwan Al-Nachawati was compelled to launch the platform after experiencing his own challenges navigating the health system for appropriate mental health supports.
Since the ACCESS Pitch competition in January 2019, the LinkMentalHealth team has shared their achievements due to ACCESS’ support, as of June 2019:
LinkMentalHealth has now helped connect over 1500 people to mental health services in the GTA, and have begun expansion to the Brampton area, tripling the number of service providers we have on the platform.
From a technical standpoint, the platform can now sync the calendars of therapists in a secure fashion. This is such an important feature, as only 10% of therapists answer their phones, so those seeking support often find it challenging to connect for the initial appointment. This was led by their co-op developer, where parts of The ACCESS Fund helped fund their work.
They are launching pilots with corporations, allowing them to ensure they can be self-sustaining.
LinkMentalHealth has gone on to win additional pitch competitions.
“We couldn't have done it without ACCESS’ support.”
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