The Good Fight: How Tech can Promote Mental Wellness
By Brad Baum & Patrick Harmon Lopez
High emotions around the presidential election that never seems to end, a slowing economic recovery, unpredictable job market, school reopenings getting rolled back, and new global COVID spikes have all contributed to rising anxiety levels and an overall decline in mental health. For context, according to recent reports, the percentage of Americans reporting depression symptoms has tripled during the pandemic.
COVID has pushed many of us to the breaking point, and as a result has made mental health top-of-mind among employers, employees, parents, children, and consequently investors. However, mental health is not a new phenomenon or concern. Mental illness has been a silent pandemic plaguing our society and has only been intensifying in terms of reach and impact. Furthermore, while COVID will soon be another chapter in our history textbooks (literally), mental health projects to be a long-term, exacerbating struggle.
That said, the two issues are inexorably linked. The pandemic has arguably created the perfect recipe for a mental health crisis, brewing a storm of isolation, uncertainty, fear and anxiety all together. Remote work, lack of social interaction, 24/7 child care, employment risk — these ingredients together have greatly accelerated the underlying issues related to mental health, successfully plunging it into the mainstream subset of societal concerns.
Over a series of four articles, we will not only explore the roots of the mental health problem, but also the opportunity to work toward resolving it. To be a venture investor requires one to be a cynic and an optimist all at once — a cynic because we need to consider all the potential pitfalls that could derail a great idea on paper; an optimist because we also need to believe that a solution to the problem does exist and that we can find it, support it, and help founders fix the problem for good.
