The notOK App

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth and the 10th cause of death nation wide. Our mission here at the notOK app is to make it easier for people to ask for help. The solution we are proposing is a digital panic button that when pressed, sends a text message to the user's up to 5 trusted contacts that says, "Hey I'm notOK. Please call me, text me, or come check up on me." Along with the user's GPS location.

As of 2017, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death for all ages in the United States and the 2nd leading cause of death in youth ages 15-24. 

Around 123 people, including 22 veterans, die by suicide each day. 

Not to mention, on the global scale, over 800,000 people needlessly die every year! That means there is 1 death every 40 seconds.

LatinX teens have the HIGHEST rate of suicide attempts amoung their peers.

Suicide rates for the African Americans from 5-12 has DOUBLED.

Native American teens experience the HIGHEST rate of suicide of ANY other group in the US..

1.5 million kids will go to the emergency room for suicide ideaation this year alone.

This is a growing global epidemic that must be stopped.

As a suicide survivor myself,I know what it’s like and I know we can all work together to change the conversation around mental illness and mental health and we can complety erradicate deaths by suicide.

We are serving anyone who is "notOK". Whatever being "notOK" means to them, because we understand that in today's society there is a wide range of ways to be notOK. From the user's most vulnerable moment when they see a piece of cake reverting back to binge eating habits, to holding a knife in their hand contemplating life itself, or even sitting at a bar after graduating from rehab. The notOK provides support to the user, instantly connecting them to their trusty support group in minutes.

The user simply has to download notOK (a free app), register, and pick up to 5 trusted contacts. They can be anyone from friends and family, to a recovery partner or therapist. Whoever the user trusts!

So when in a moment of need, all they have to do is press one button, to instantly get the help that they need.

notOK is a free app, available on both IOS and Android devices. The user downloads notOK, registers, and picks up to 5 trusted contacts from their contacts list.

They can be anyone from friends and family, to a recovery partner or therapist. Whoever the user trusts!

So when in a moment of need, all they have to do is press one button, to instantly get the help that they need.

For in depth tutorial click here.

Throughout my battle with depression, I struggled with the stigma surrounding mentl illness. I knew something was wrong so I would try and text a friend asking them for help. I deleted each text before they were able to be sent because I didn't know the correct words to use. Not only that, depression and mental illness inhibits a person's ability to ask for help. With notOK however, all the user has to do is press one simple button to instantly be connected with their support group. The notOK app reduces reaching out for help to the press of a button... literally!

Our solution incorporates GPS technology and pairs it with API technology to get the user the help they need and to notify the user's trusted contacts where they are when they are notOK.

notOK takes the guesswork out of asking for help. That means instead of typing up text messages to friends or family asking them for help only to delete the text before it is ever sent, the user simply has to press a button and a text asking for help along with their GPS location and directions is sent out to all of their trusted contacts at once.

We are currently serving 70,000 users.

Estimated growth by next year: 600,000 users.

Estimated growth in 5 years: 7-10 million users.

Our goal is to engage our current partnership with the Crisis Text Line in the next update so if the trusted contacts do not respond within an lotted amount of time, the user will recieve a text from the Crisis Text Line. We also plan to expand to multiple lanuages and offer free mental health screenings users can take to their doctor in order to start the conversation reguarding their mental wellbeing. 

We currently have a nonprofit in order to support the dynamic cost of maintaining the app, and are unable to support the app by ourselves any longer.

We are looking to expand to an enterprise level in order to sustain the growing demand and costs of upkeep.

We are pursuing funding through grants, contests, scholarships, foundations, etc.

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Full time staff: 3

Board members: 8

Intern: 1

By overcoming challenges of suicide ideation and depression ourselves, my brother and I are in a unique place where we talk about our experiences and strongly advocate for mental health.

We’ve also been lucky enough to have a 501c3 supported by some incredible board members. We have several executives from Crisis Text Line, Hope for The day, American Association of Suicidology, and East Taylor Creative.

• Mental Health America Mental Health Screenings- evidence-based screenings user can take to their physicians to get the conversation started for potential treatment https://screening.mentalhealthamerica.net/screening-tools

• Crisis Text Line Integration- if all 5 trusted contacts indicate they are unable to respond or no response is given, users will receive an automated text from Crisis Text Line to which they can respond to receive further help. 

The notOK app can be used for anyone who is "notOK", and in today's spciety that can mean many different things. Therefore we serve a wide variety of users from all walks of life. 

We work with behavoral health facilities, drug abuse rehab facilities, and universities that use the notOK app.

Essentially we are a non-profit social enterprise.

By intergrating the notOK app into society as a trusted resource for suicide prevention, notOK will be considered too big to fail. We will be working with government entities who will see the evidence based solutions, and exact change in their regions in order to lower the suicide rate.

Being selected for Solve will increase our product's credibility and awareness, shine aa global light on notOK, and pave the road for sponsorship and donation partnerships.

Being selected for Solve will increase our products awareness.

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We are interested in working with Johnson n Johnson as they are putting more resources into advancing mental health awareness, care, and destigmatizing it.

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We will put the prize money back into notOK to enhance our product. We will also utilize the global exposure to connect with like-minded organizations to advance mental health care. 

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