How AI Is Being Used to Solve the Mental Health Crisis

Most systems have struggled to identify how to provide quality mental health services that meet or exceed the basic therapeutic response, which often consists of merely evaluating a patient admitted to the psych ward of a hospital, sometimes medicating them, and quickly discharging them within a few days or weeks under the guise of recommending a sensible “action plan” for the patient to follow.

Therefore, to properly address rising mental health needs in every community, public agencies (specifically, health departments, school systems, jails/prisons, and even the military) are beginning to partner with private digital behavioral health companies to expand much-needed access to support services.

In addition to those challenges, the lack of qualified therapists and the prohibitive cost of traditional therapy continue to be two of the major obstacles to an individual receiving proper mental healthcare. Thankfully, a new innovative approach has now emerged from a startup company known as mySHO (which stands for My Select Health Options). Founded in 2019 by military veterans Terry Williams and A.J. Pasha, mySHO is a digital platform that provides technologically transformative products and services to address gaps in the education system, healthcare system, criminal justice system, and other sectors. As an industry trailblazer, mySHO‘s unique, culturally competent, and culturally connected programming features the most advanced artificial intelligence platform in the mental health tech arena today.

To deliver their vision of a truly transformational health tech organization, mySHO has connected with two powerful sources: Scalable Care (WSC-Well Advised), a leading technology firm based in Silicon Valley (Scalable Care Chief Technology Officer John Denning is a medical technology industry veteran who was a prominent member of the same team that developed MyChart and Epic electronic healthcare software used by most hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world today) and the UCSF’s (University of California – San Francisco’s) Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute. Both sources joined forces with mySHO to bring GritX to market, an evidence-based mental health digital tool that provides 24/7 social and emotional support to populations who require ongoing emotional care. (According to one key figure within the U.S. Department of Justice, GritX by mySHO is the “best-kept thing no one knows about yet“).

Five Advantages of Partnering with mySHO–GritX

1. Unlike the typical digital therapeutics model, mySHO–GritX offers services that require no appointment and are available 24/7 – 365 with the ability to receive real-time, digital, (evidence-based) mental health services and support via smartphone, tablet, or computer. So, GritX makes it possible for anyone who needs immediate mental health assistance to receive accurate, professional, emotional care at any time of day or night.
2. All data points are being securely captured from each conversation with mySHO–GritX to keep a history of every interaction that the school-age youth or adult seeking mental health services has had with mySHO–GritX.
3. Therapy sessions are fluent in 92 languages (and growing).
4. mySHO–GritX is customizable, adaptable, and adjustable to the specifications of most behavioral and mental health systems. mySHO also has the actual operational blueprint, engagement methodology, evidence-based support tools, and self-sustainability plan to jumpstart, operationalize, and complement any Office or Department of Behavioral Health, Substance Abuse, or Public Safety. mySHO’s innovative Public-Private Partnership model utilizes available grant funding from Federal, State, and Local resources to provide GritX to the end user at no cost.
5. The GritX tool is committed to setting a standard in privacy and accessibility for every user. Adhering to stringent security guidelines, which include being fully HIPPA, PII, HITECH, NIST 800-171, PCI DSS, and GDPR-compliant. GritX ensures a safe and inclusive environment for all.

Summary

In October of 2023, mySHO began participating in a program sponsored by the Mayo Clinic that allows teams of undergraduates, led by MBA students from private colleges and universities throughout Minnesota, to research and recommend the next steps for inventions and new products in development at the Mayo Clinic.

Thanks to companies like mySHO and their creative understanding of one way to best utilize AI/machine learning to solve real-life problems, the future of mental healthcare is looking brighter by the day with the implementation of technology.