An application that tracks users’ mental health and helps them get the right help at the right time was launched on Monday by the Tata Trusts’ Foundation for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (FISE).
The application, Trust Circle, was one of the 21 innovative start-ups for which the FISE held an open house so that the brains behind the start-ups could meet potential investors.
The app allows individuals to track their mental health based on responses to a questionnaire coupled with their updates on an internal network for users. The data is conveyed to a central server, which gets alerted if a user is slipping into the “red zone”.
Sachin Chaudhry, founder of Trust Circle, said, “Around three decades ago, my brother was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, following which our family undertook a lot of expensive treatments and went to various doctors, all of which could have been avoided if we had access to better resources. This is what I want to achieve with Trust Circle; an application that allows you to keep your mental health in check so you don’t have to wait for things to turn sour before you start seeking help.”
Mr. Chaudhary said this is the first-of-its-kind in the country and the mental health tracking and online support system features are free for individual users. Its ‘Mhealth Insights’ feature, however, is a paid option, and allows enterprises access to the aggregate mental health data of its employees so that they can discern when to offer counselling sessions or other resources.
Daily updates
Shrikant Prabhu from FISE said, “We select projects that have a social impact value and are innovative in terms of technology. We plug the incubatees into the network they require to grow in the country. The good thing about Trust Circle is this mobile app has tapped into a market which earlier had zero supply because there are online mental health services but none which actually allow you to monitor mental health like you would your other vitals on an everyday basis.”
Enterprises such as the Schizophrenia Research Foundation have integrated Trust Circle’s test feature into their screening process.
They are targeting government colleges as well as corporates so that students and employees can gain access to resources in their respective high-pressure environments.
COMMents
SHARE