The Making of Mind Ease: How are we Helping the Mental Health Crisis?

I think we can all agree, it’s been a rough few years for humankind. Mind Ease exists because of a small team of people wondering what can we do to help? We aim to do the best we can to play our part in reducing human suffering. Our mission is to deliver highly accessible and effective mental health support to people all over the world.

Why mental health?

We have chosen to make mental health our priority because it is one of the most wide-spread causes of suffering affecting humans today. Depression and anxiety are among the highest of conditions contributing to the global burden of disease, especially since 2020.

Part of this problem is that there are often numerous barriers to accessing effective treatments for these conditions. It can be expensive, confusing, have multiple unnecessary hoops to jump through, or it just might not be available at all. Not to mention, the stigma that often comes along with seeking mental health care, as well as how difficult it can be to talk about these struggles.   

The World Health Organization (WHO) released their 2022 World Mental Health Report outlining the severity of this problem. The report calls for a greater focus on delivering mental health care in effective ways to those who need it most.

How are we doing this?

We don’t just want to make any mental health app—it’s important to make one that actually works and achieves what we are trying to achieve. This means that we’re putting a lot of effort into getting it right. It’s an ongoing journey that depends a lot on scientific developments, user feedback, and our ability to adapt to user needs.

We were launched by Spark Wave—a startup foundry that applies social science, strategic thinking, and iterative experimentation to create software companies that have the potential to deliver high value to society. So, our focus, right from the beginning, is to be effective.

To stay true to this value, we develop content based on well-established evidence-based techniques for treating mental health challenges. We also recognise that different approaches work for different people, and therefore try to include a variety of techniques in our app.

Our content undergoes rigorous testing with hundreds of participants from the public before being integrated into the app. We also conduct ongoing analyses of user outcomes and preferences, which continually inform app development.

Is it working?

We’re still working on improving the value of our app, but so far, we’re proud to say that we’ve made a positive difference in many of our user’s lives!

In Mind Ease, there is a function called “Calm Me” that delivers a short calming activity when someone is in a moment of distress. To help us and our users keep track of what works, we ask users to rate how they feel before and after these activities.

Our data has consistently shown that these activities significantly improve our user’s mental state in the moment. We are also in the process of developing content that will have more longer-term impact on mental wellbeing.

An independent analysis of Mind Ease concluded that, in its current trajectory, the app is likely to have a significant beneficial social impact. This conclusion was based on a review of the scientific literature showing support for the therapeutic techniques used in Mind Ease, and specific app study data.

This means that developing this type of content is likely to meet our goal of producing more accessible and affordable mental health care for a larger number of people.

We envision a world where people who suffer from depression and anxiety always have a reliable way to feel better whenever they need it. We want people to directly suffer less and have greater control over their own mental states.

Try Mind Ease today and let us know what you think!