Mentale Ltd

Mentale provides different mental health services such as awareness and treatment services using digital platforms.

Mentale enable people to access mental health services anywhere anytime by using digital platforms. Those digital platforms are website, mobile apps and later USSD. 

Those platforms help in awareness as users can get mental health information, ask and get answers from qualified mental health professionals via the platform's blog and forum. For people who don't have access to those platforms, we go beyond the technology and carry our physical awareness campaigns. 

Apart from awareness, users can get mental health services like doing mental health status assessment and get recommendations depending on  the status. For further assistance, users can book a virtual or in person appointment with a mental health professional. 

Mentale uses top of technologies like Artificial intelligence and Machine learning to simplify user experience. 

All it requires to get those services is to have access to a mobile phone whether smart or not or a computer.

The problem we are trying to solve is the gap in mental health service provision. There is a great demand but available support fails to meet the needs of suffering people. 

According to WHO, globally almost13% of people have a mental health disorder meaning that millions of people are suffering from a specific mental disorder. This has been worsened by ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 which affected economy, health and social life of world's population. 

The situation is worse in lower and middle income countries where in most countries only one percent of their budget is invested in mental health. Rwanda is among low and middle income countries which faces an exceptionally large burden of mental health disorders because of Genocide against Tutsi in 1994 historical background. Recently Rwanda biomedical center said that 23.1% of youth are suffering from Depression and many are struggling with alcoholism and that's a small portion of population only. 

Factors that contribute to the problem is lack of awareness about mental health issues where many are not aware of their condition until they reach in critical condition. Also, limited access to mental health services due to limited number of facilities and professionals contribute to the problem. Also stigma stigma prevent with courage to seek assistance in case of need. 

As consequence, this gap leave LMIC like African countries have between 76% and 85% of people with mental disorders who don't receive treatment for their disorder. 

Our target population is divided into 3 classification 

1. Employees:these are people who are employed. They are busy working while handling work stress, personal issues and family issues. There is a risk for them to develop stress related mental health issues or others yet they don't have time to go to the hospital and wait for hours to meet with a mental health professional. By using Mentale platforms they can get mental health services in their limited short time anywhere they are so, they don't have to request day offs or suffer a lot in case they have mental health issues. They can book and schedule appointment in their break time and continually check their mental health status.  
2. Youth: this is the category of people who are at a very high risk of developing mental health issues due to development stage, peer pressure, constant body changes and challenges, family issues, violence, education issues, early pregnancy and so on. They tend to suffer from mood, eating, anxiety disorders, drug abuse and others. Most of them fail to seek help due to stigma and fear of being judged. By using our platforms they get all information they need and get assisted by professionals in confidentiality. 
3. Other individuals: this include other individuals who are suffering from specific mental health issues and need mental health services. They can use our platforms for either prevention by reading mental health information, check up and treatment reasons. 

I volunteered in a research by Global Engagement Institute that was about mental health in working space. The research results indicated that most employees have mental health issues which usually affect their performance negatively but it is the least cared issue in most of the companies. Apart from the employees, we did research in schools and found that many students who have low academic performance have underlining cause which is not usually their low intelligence but mental health issues cause by personal issues and family issues. The common problem was about how and where to seek help easily and in confidentiality. 

I also volunteered in existing company (Global Engagement institute) and it tackle on mental health in workspace where they provide mental health services to organisations/ companies mostly using both digital and non digital services. 

While developing our solution, we constantly ask for feedback and input from potential users on what features or services they would find relevant to their needs.

Currently, we are at prototype stage of development. We only have a website which is working but the Mobile Apps and USSD are still in progress, we are still working on them. 

Apart from the platforms, we have mental health professionals who will help us. We have signed the MOU with professional associations sch as Rwanda Psychological Society and Rwanda Nurses and Midwives Union. 

 Also, we already have the community to test the solution. We have signed the contact with a school and the students will be using our platforms starting from mid-February but before then, we are carrying out awareness campaigns in that school and on our social medias with the help of the professionals. 

The technology used is a new application of existing technology. For instance, people use technology to shop what they need without leaving their homes, so, why not get mental health services without travelling to the hospital? 

Almost 100% of Mentale involve technology. This is because everything is done via the system of the platforms like Mobile applications, websites and even USSD. People can get get screening of mental health status, book appointment and even have virtual sessions with mental health professionals. 

 In addition in provision of mental health services on Mentale platform involve web.2o technology which include chatting, video and voice calling and so on.

Not only the platform but also hardware to be used are technology based specifically mobile phones and computers. 

Mentale also uses top of technologies like Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data science and Machine learning to simplify user experience.

Currently we are serving 2000 people and in one year we intend to serve more than 10,000 people, ranging from institutions to independent individuals.

In next five years, we intend to serve more than 100,000 people ranging from institutions to individuals.

By next year, Mentale platforms will be fully functional.  Here are impact goals: 

1. All platforms will be usable ( Mobile App, Website, USSD). This means they will be finalized and already in use. Specifically, in 2 months, we are doing Web development and Mobile App for Android development, the following 3 months will be for piloting, development of USSD and Mobile App for iPhone (IOS) development. In following 7 months, the platforms will keep being tested in combination of working on data science and machine learning.
2. More than 10,000 people will be using our services across the country. we are plan to approach and work with more institutions by the end of the year and provide our services to other individuals. By focusing more on institutions will be an advantage as we can reach to many people easily than reaching to individual per individual  We will reach them through different awareness campaigns and marketing campaigns. 
3. We'll be working with more than 50 mental health professionals. We have signed Memorandum of Understanding with Rwanda Psychologist Society and Rwanda Mentale health nurses to provide us few mental health professionals to help us in awareness campaigns but we will increase the number as days goes by. Their increased number will help to meet the mental health services needs of the market. 

We have not yet started to measure our progress but we plan to use the following indicators 

1. Number of users: this will be done by tracking number of people who visited the website, downloaded the apps or used USSD 
2. Number of appointments booked with mental health professionals 
3. Recovery rate and satisfactory rate: this will be through rating survey and reports by professionals and feedback survey from customers.

Barriers that can limit our impact include financial , market and technical barriers.

Starting with financial barriers; since Mentale is a startup, the capital needed is high and it's usually hard to get investors in first place as a startup

About market barriers; Till now mental health issues are still stigmatized and it's hard for people to understand that they have to seek for help despite the high level of mental health issues among people of all ages. Barriers will be about getting more users/market. In addition, since it is technology based, people with limited access to mobile phones or computers can be hard to reach them. 

For technical barriers: technology is always evolving and our solution is mostly technology based. It requires continuous updates which comes with lots of cyber threats and risks.  

Though there are barriers we have established strategies to overcome them. 

Financial barrier will be solved by keep persuading different investors and applying in different grants and funding to get funds. 

Market barriers will be solved by comprehensive advertisement and awareness campaigns

Technology barriers will be solved by hiring skilled IT staff and continuous trainings.

Our team have variety of backgrounds, skills and experiences which are perfect for the implementation of this solution as described below:

• One of the team member is Liliane NIYIGENA, a team leader and  a registered mental health nurse with mental health care skills gained through studies and internships in community and different mental health care facilities. Those skills will help in better delivery of quality mental health services.
• An other team member is Cyber Security and Data Science Engineer MIZERERE RUKUNDO Jean Sauveur, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate in Data Science and Information System. He will help in technology related matters so that our system will function with maximum quality.
• There is also Theoneste NIYOMUGABO , Marketing and Financial consultant with 4+ experience sales and finances consultant for different businesses.  
• HURIRO MWEZI Vladmir, Investment Manager and advisor.
• MUNEZERO BAGIRA Sostene, intern and Software Developer an award winner for 2019 best performer in Rwanda national exam.

We believe that it is the right team to work with because we have all necessary skills to run the implementation of the solution. We are able to get mental health expertise skills , tech skills and skills related to marketing and finances within the team that will help in finding right resources in mental health, developing Websites Mobile apps & USSD and managing well our finances as well as market respectively. All those skills will make our solution really implementable as  flawless solution to mental health problems.

Apart from the skills and experiences, we are all passionate about making the difference in wellbeing and welfare of the community. 

Currently we have 3 partners.

1. Rwanda Psychologist Society. it is a regulatory body of Psychologists. Partnership goals:

•  Providing Psychologists in awareness programs and even in providing mental health services
• Mentor and advice in services delivery and platforms development

2. Rwanda Nurses and Midwives Association. It is an association of all nurses and midwives in Rwanda. 

Partnership goals:

• Provide mental health nurses in awareness programs and provide mental health services 
• Mentor and  advice in services delivery and platforms development

3. SOS secondary school. It is a school of students in secondary school. 

Partnership goals:

• Assisting in piloting our solution by letting students participate in awareness programs and use our platforms 
• Advice us on the changes and improvement to make in our services 

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We are qualified for this grant because, our solution will address one of unmet need in the community which is about filing the gap in mental health. It have been affecting the whole population but specifically women and girls. Researchers has shown than women are 40% more likely to develop mental health conditions than men because of high vulnerability due to biological, social and environmental factors. For instance teen mother who have faced sexual violence and stigma, women who faced domestic violence and others.  

Though our solution, they will have access to the mental health information and services through our platforms anywhere anytime. This will contribute to raising awareness on mental health prevention and treatment and people will seek help and that will decrease disability caused by mental health conditions. 

If we get this prize, we will scale our services to many places and create greater impact. This may come with hiring more mental health professionals and working with many mental health facilities in rural and urban areas. Also, we will develop more programs that are specific for women and girls who are more vulnerable for developing mental health issues like teen mothers, abused women, single mothers and others. Apart from that, we will use the prize toward fulfilling the main mission for the prize, which means that we'll be open to ideas and advises of the funding team.