From forest bathing to urban parks: How nature helps protect our well-being during a pandemic

Liv­ing through the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has had a severe impact on people’s men­tal health and well-being. Restrict­ed move­ment, loss, and iso­la­tion have led to increas­es in depres­sion, anx­i­ety dis­or­ders, stress, sleep dis­or­ders, and more. The effects have been even harsh­er for teens. How can we help pro­tect our well-being dur­ing this par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult time? Though a…

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Harnessing Technology (and Anxiety) for Good

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing impor­tant brain & men­tal health news plus a few fun brain teasers to test your rea­son­ing skills and more… #1. Chal­lenge ahead: Har­ness­ing tech­nol­o­gy for good men­tal health “Tech­nol­o­gy can not only help us grow out of unhealthy habits, it is also pos­si­ble to expand human mental…

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Challenge ahead: Harnessing technology for good mental health

Mak­ing tech­nol­o­gy an ally in men­tal health care (Fun­dación Inno­vación Bank­in­ter): Inter­est in using tech­nol­o­gy for men­tal health dates back to the mid twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. “Stud­ies began back in the 1960s, giv­en the grow­ing con­cern about addic­tion in chil­dren (espe­cial­ly) and adults,” clar­i­fies Álvaro Fer­nán­dez Ibáñez about the begin­ning of this dis­ci­pline. Sesame Street, the…

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Lyra Health, Big Health and Mantra Health raise a combined $332M to commercialize digital therapeutics for mental/ behavioral health

Lyra Health scores $235M and buys employ­ee assis­tant pro­gram ICAS World (Mobi­Health News): Employ­er-focused dig­i­tal men­tal health provider Lyra Health announced a whop­ping $235 mil­lion Series F round led by Drag­oneer. Sales­force Ven­tures and Coat­ue also par­tic­i­pat­ed. This new infu­sion of cash brings the com­pa­ny’s total raise to over $900 mil­lion. The fund­ing coin­cid­ed with…

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APA: With digital mental health going mainstream, will/ should psychologists be able to “prescribe” interventions?

Men­tal health, meet ven­ture cap­i­tal (APA): Until recent­ly, men­tal health was a rel­a­tive blip on the radar of ven­ture cap­i­tal­ists. But over the past few years, and par­tic­u­lar­ly since the onset of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, pri­vate investors have made a dra­mat­ic run for this space, pour­ing $3.1 bil­lion into men­tal health ven­tures by the third…

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On schools, mental health, digital surveillance, student privacy and parental input

Op-Ed: School sur­veil­lance on stu­dents’ lap­tops will not help solve the youth men­tal health cri­sis (Los Ange­les Times): In the past year, school dis­tricts in Cal­i­for­nia and else­where have con­tract­ed with dig­i­tal sur­veil­lance com­pa­nies to spy on stu­dents at school and home, cit­ing the need for men­tal health sup­port dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. Despite being a vigilant…

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