{"id":1130,"date":"2019-11-28T14:20:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T06:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindcare.qodeinteractive.com\/?p=1130"},"modified":"2024-09-10T14:08:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T06:08:06","slug":"covid-19-is-taking-a-toll-on-mental-wellness-but-this-startup-wants-to-provide-a-safe-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/covid-19-is-taking-a-toll-on-mental-wellness-but-this-startup-wants-to-provide-a-safe-space\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 is taking a toll on mental wellness, but this startup wants to provide a Safe Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mental wellness startup Safe Space<\/a> introduced their video conferencing feature about the same time the circuit breaker measure was implemented in Singapore in April, as an effort to tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Like startups operating in other Southeast Asian countries during the global health crisis, the company is called to do their parts by providing pro bono mental wellness consultation services to frontline health workers.<\/p>\n

This step is especially crucial as experts have warned against the rise of mental illness as the next pandemic, as an aftermath of the current global health crisis.<\/p>\n

As a preventive education and tele-therapy platform for mental health, Safe Space noted a shift in their user base that coincides with the rise of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been an unfortunate new flow of audience who needs someone to talk to,\u201d co-founder and CEO Antoinette Renee Patterson tells e27<\/strong> in an interview.<\/p>\n

Since the appearance of the first COVID-19 case in Singapore in January, Safe Space has seen a 64 per cent increase in user growth. While the platform\u2019s users are mostly female by the time of its launch in March 2019, at the moment there is almost a 50-50 balance in gender.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Why Khailee Ng puts mental healthcare support as key to successful founders-investors relationship<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The majority of its users are career-minded Millennials who are also concerned about the affordability of mental healthcare services.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a solution, we partner with insurance companies to ensure that users can continue with their care,\u201d Patterson says.<\/p>\n

Running a startup in times of crisis<\/h3>\n

Marketing a product or service in times of crisis is a tricky matter. Companies have to balance between ensuring that their business stays afloat and being sensitive to the challenges faced by the customers.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, startups need to ensure that there are no missed opportunities, as with the case with these major e-commerce platforms in Vietnam. But they also do not want to be seen as if they are milking these opportunities.<\/p>\n

Prior to COVID-19, the startup was helped by word-of-mouth marketing as done by their families and friends. They also utilise social media platforms and events to advertise their service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot of workshops to bring the therapists together and educate the audiences,\u201d Patterson says.<\/p>\n

But as their user base grows, Safe Space finds the need to start investing in paid advertising.<\/p>\n

So, in their opinion, what are the keys to find that balance?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always put our clients and therapists first, so we try to write it in their perspectives \u2026 so that we can avoid being hard-sell,\u201d Patterson explains.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Leaders, it\u2019s time to talk about mental health<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on personal experience<\/h3>\n

The history of Safe Space began after co-founders Patterson and Navaneeth Sreekandan discovered the challenges that Singaporeans are facing in securing mental healthcare providers.<\/p>\n

As professionals in the advertising industries, both of them felt the need to \u201cspeak to someone that is not a family or friend\u201d to help them deal with stress. But in addition to being embarrassing, finding a therapist was also a difficult process that forces them to search and make phone calls, one-by-one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to create a platform that basically simplifies the process \u2026 by matching a person to a therapist in real-time,\u201d Patterson says.<\/p>\n

The startup is currently fundraising for its seed stage funding round. Currently run by a small team of three, Safe Space is looking forward to growing its team members to help them get more therapists on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started in 2017, there was barely any coverage on mental health in major media platforms. But today there is always something \u2026 from the use of TCM for mental health to how to identify anxiety,\u201d Patterson closes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental wellness startup Safe Space introduced their video conferencing feature about the same time the circuit breaker measure was implemented in Singapore in April, as an effort to tackle the ongoing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68,154,111,110,153,76,70],"tags":[79,27],"class_list":["post-1130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19","category-eap-101","category-human-capital-resources","category-mental-health-news","category-self-help","category-work","category-workplace-wellness","tag-corporate","tag-mental-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9381,"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130\/revisions\/9381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innomaxprojects.com\/safespace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}