To do nothing is not an option”: The NHS Confederation releases digital mental health whitepaper

The NHS Con­fed­er­a­tion–the mem­ber­ship organ­i­sa­tion for health­care providers in Eng­land, Wales and North­ern Ire­land– has just released a quite com­pre­hen­site 45-page whitepa­per titled Max­imis­ing the poten­tial of dig­i­tal in men­tal health. Some of the high­lights: To do noth­ing is not an option. If we don’t make more progress we miss a key oppor­tu­ni­ty to make…

Read More

How much should you trust BetterHelp, Talkspace, Cerebral and other mental health start-ups touted by celebrities?

When Pat Paulson’s son told her he was feel­ing anx­ious and depressed at col­lege, Paul­son went through her Blue Cross Blue Shield provider direc­to­ry and start­ed call­ing men­tal health ther­a­pists. No providers in the Wis­con­sin city where her son’s uni­ver­si­ty is locat­ed had open­ings. So she bought a month­ly sub­scrip­tion to Bet­ter­Help, a Moun­tain View,…

Read More

From “Eminence-based” to Evidence-based cognitive & mental healthcare: Time for quality and accountability

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain & men­tal health news, two excel­lent new books and a few fun brain teasers. #1. From “Emi­­nence-based” to Evi­­dence-based men­tal health­care: Time to focus on qual­i­ty and account­abil­i­ty “The real chal­lenge is not find­ing a ther­a­pist, it’s find­ing a ther­a­pist who knows how to provide…

Read More

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled chatbot Wysa raises $5.5M to broaden access to mental health support

Wysa’s AI-Guid­ed Men­tal Health Plat­form Clos­es $5.5M Series A to Bridge the Gap in Employ­ee Men­tal Health (press release): “Wysa, the lead­ing glob­al AI-pow­ered men­tal health plat­form, today, dur­ing Men­tal Health Aware­ness Month, announced a $5.5M Series A financ­ing round led by W Health Ven­tures, a Boston-based dig­i­tal health investor. Oth­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing in the round…

Read More

On Brain Awareness Week, mental health innovation, tDCS, biofeedback, psychedelics, and more

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, start­ing with some ideas to get in the mood for Brain Aware­ness Week next month (March 15–21st). May BAW 2021 be a hun­dred times more upbeat than last year’s… #1. Sev­en brain teasers and a neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty pod­cast to cel­e­brate Brain Aware­ness Week 2021 #2. Imag­ine what this capability…

Read More

Digital mental health start-up Koa Health raises €30M to accelerate growth in Europe and the US

Men­tal health­care start­up Koa Health clos­es €30M Series A fund­ing to expand its inter­na­tion­al foot­print (Sil­i­con Canals): In a recent devel­op­ment, Barcelona-based dig­i­tal men­tal health­care provider, Koa Health, has announced it closed an over­sub­scribed €30M Series A fund­ing round … The com­pa­ny had raised the funds back in Octo­ber 2020 and had also announced its spin-out…

Read More