MIT Solve

Solution & Team Overview

Solution name:

Accessible Mental Health diagnostics, treatment, and recovery

Short solution summary:

Access, Access, Access! The mental health crises due to the pandemic has found no response either at the systemic or the individual level. We provide the most accessible model to diagnose, treat, and support recovery from mental health illnesses and concerns. We provide access to mental health where you are.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team based?

San Antonio, TX, USA

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

We are a flat organization lead by a team of 5 PhD experts, the founder is Allen Olson-Urtecho, Design Lead, Founder.

Which Challenge Area does your solution most closely address?

Recover (Improve health & economic system resilience), such as: Best protective interventions, especially for vulnerable populations, Avoid/mitigate negative second-order consequences, Integrate true costs of pandemic risk into economic systems

What specific problem are you solving?

We started our research three years ago in responding to children committing suicide and self mutilation in refugee camps, our human centered design approach begins and ends with refugees. Our search for a way to reach the children had us innovate and create a new model for providing psychological therapies to vulnerable populations. We have a sustainable and scalable model to reach marginalized communities by way of selling our VR cases for $25 and for each sale we donate a VR case to vulnerable communities from nurses unions, to refugees, to disaster regions.

The pandemic has created a world wide mental health crises, the virus itself is found to produce mental health illnesses after infection on 20% of people. We have large segments of populations suffering depression, PTSD, domestic violence, suicide, deaths of despair, alcohol and substance abuse, and other mental health concerns. We have +30 years of research and evidence of the efficacy of providing therapies and training in virtual reality, our model is developed using the findings of research institutions and universities around the world. We provide a more accessible and low cost model by way of using a mobile VR model.

Who does your solution serve, and what needs of theirs does it address?

We have conducted field studies in refugee camps and with urban refugees, during the pandemic we have reached out to more refugee camps such as the Rhino Camp in Uganda with +100,000 Sudanese refugees, we have partnered with local African staffed centers which service these communities. We have research for each of our therapies and training which go back +30 years and which are proven to respond to the particular mental health concern being addressed.

We have sixteen therapies and trainings in various stages of development, four of those therapies have the potential to revolutionize their medical field. Studio Bahia's therapies address anxiety, chronic pain, Alzheimer’s disease, pain management, natural and man-made disaster, refugee, temporal recalibration for autism, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, strabismus and amblyopia, and include narrative exposure therapy, solution focused therapy, prenatal care, childbirth training, postpartum training, and others. Many of these therapies and training are not available in middle and low income regions, or even in high income regions, we provide easy access to world class therapies and training.

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Pilot: A project, initiative, venture, or organisation deploying its research, product, service, or business/policy model in at least one context or community