Tu Consejeria

Central America Healthcare Initiative Fellow (2019), Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative Fellow (2016), International Visitor Leadership Program Fellow (2012). My background includes working with businesses, higher education, investment, entrepreneurship, migration, and the tourism sector in the Central America region. Most recently I have been working in the mental health field aiming to solvemany of the problems in Guatemala with my social enterprise, TuConsejeria, where we connect youth and young adults with mental health professionals using a low-cost web-based solution. I have more than 15 years of experience and a passion for Guatemala and the youth in the region. 

Under crisis situations, the number of people exposed to extreme stressors increases considerably, deteriorating the mental health and psychosocial well-being of the affected populations in the short, medium, and long term. Emergency situations, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, can create various problems at the personal level, the family, the community, and society. These problems also tend to exacerbate existing social injustice and inequality problems.  Our tool helps to mitigate the effects that the COVID19 crisis has caused in people's lives. If people under stress conditions have the opportunity to interact with mental health professionals in a timely manner, they will be able to increase their resilience to the crisis, minimizing its long-term effects. TuConsejeria is a web-based solution that allows any people to chat in real time and confidentially with mental health professionals. 

During the first two weeks of March, the Guatemalan government put into effect measures to contain the advance of the pandemic. These measures, which include confinement and mobility restrictions, are having serious impacts on the mental health of thousands of Guatemalans, especially women, youth, frontline health workers, as well as other traditionally excluded groups such as forced returnees, indigenous populations and people who depend on informal or temporary employment.

In this emergency context, cases of violence against women and girls, especially domestic violence, have also increased. Failure to take preventive measures on the mental health of the population, medium-term consequences will have impact at all socioeconomic levels, from the effects of anxiety and depression to violence due to the lack of an economic income in households.

Our solutions aims to be the relief valve for many of this youth in the region that never talk about what they are living and their problems. They need professional support and we are providing it. 

TuConsejeria is a web-based solution that allows any people to chat in real time and confidentially with mental health professionals. TuConsejeria has a team of mental health professionals who are available 16 hours a day to provide psychological support on various issues that affect the user: anxiety, stress, violence, depression, among others.

The platform has a capacity of 200 people connected simultaneously and according to user demand; it has the ability to indefinitely expand the number of mental health professionals. With this strategy, TuConsejería also seeks to be an alternative for generating employment remotely for psychology professionals.

The web app has a simple interface that makes it easy to use for any demographic. In order to make the web-app accessible to users without internet service, we have also included the option to add data for the platform.

To access the service, the person only has to create a username and make the payment of USD $ 3.25 (Q25.00), which enables the chat option for one hour. This low cost guarantees its accessibility to people who traditionally do not have the opportunity to use this type of care due to different factors (economic, social, geographic, etc.). 

We were born as a service for youth. Our vision is to democratize the access of mental health to populations that traditionally don't have access to it. Many of the youth in our region never talk to anyone, even being the number 3 or 4 sibling in their families. We are convinced that giving youth the opportunity to find support with professionals, will have a great impact in rooted problems such as migration, violence, and the use of substances. 

We are in constant communication with youth using our social networks and direct messaging channels. All our communications is built to bring their attention and to find valuable information they can use in their life. We are still working gathering more data about their behavior since we are very careful with confidentiality and the trust they have in us. 

We offer many hours of our service at no cost, so we can reach youth closer to the bottom of the pyramid. 

Since our goal is to give access to mental health to a young population who traditionally don't look for professional help, we believe we are elevating this opportunity for them. 

Back in 2015, my job was to promote scholarships to go and study abroad. So I had to visit many schools all over the country and present these opportunities with young people (15 to 20 years old). It got my attention that in many places some of the students had all profile to be eligible, and they were not applying. Many reasons could've been the cause, so I decided to find out more. I started to ask them their reasons and after some time and gaining their trust, I found out that they were having many problems: bullying, some type of abuse, loneliness, depression, anxiety, among others. I found out they never talk to anyone about this and I started to hypothesizing that working on their mental health would make them (and us) more resilient and open to more opportunities and development. So after some iterations and more questions, a tool in their phones was the best candidate because for them their confidentiality is very important. There are many taboos around asking for help from a psychologist, as well. So our service would help with this and find them professional support. 

I've been working with youth for more than 15 years now, and even though I have many privileges (thanks to my parent's hard work), I like talking to them and connect with them. I have a very diverse professional background, I've worked in tourism, entrepreneurship, marketing, migration, international relationships, higher education, development and recently healthcare/mental health. So being close to youth under these different views, allowed to realize youth need a lot of support, and that each of the problems we face as a country/region, could've been addressed way before they become a problem: resilience helps with migration, values and self-steam with violence and human rights, self-respect with substance abuse, and so on. I'm genuinely in loved with my country and its people, I don't like the disparities and giving access to a traditionally privileged service has been my goal with Tu Consejeria. 

My diverse professional background, besides giving me this awareness on the needs youth has, also gave me a diverse network. I think that's what has helped me grow this project in Guatemala since my network and the people around me, not only believe in Tu Consejeria, but believe in me. I've been lucky to had participated in three different fellowship programs, two of them backed by the State Department, and I not only want to return the investment they did in me, but to multiply the benefits in my country and region. I'm very thankful for everything that I have, but as one of my mentors use to tell me "privileges are useless if not put into helping others". 

In a more technical approach, my work, academic and non-academic experience is something I give fully to Tu Consejeria. 

I think the best example I can give is that I've been bootstrapping since I started Tu Consejeria. I've read so much about this and how sometimes the first impulse many entreprenurs have is to find a co-founder or business partners. I've worked very hard to create and to make Tu Consejeria grow but being alone (financially) has its downs, too. So besides of course mental health not being a priority (has changed because of Covid recently), I had to overcome hard financial obstacles. When I decided we needed our own chat engine and platform, I had to use my savings. Recently I needed to pay salaries (we have been having a lot of new free users and required a bigger team) and I used the last part of my savings. A lot of people believe in what I'm doing, and I know they could help (financially), but board of advisers pushes me to my limits so I can keep having control of the many philanthropic work we do. Money will come they say, and so far, the comments we receive from users is really what motivates me. 

I have an amazing team of psychologist that backs me with any of my ideas and plans. When we decided to offer the service at no cost for 2 hours a day during this emergency, they offered me/Tu Consejeria their time, because they know we can't afford more hours. I think I have found the way to keep them and all of us very engaged and motivated with our mission. We love what we are doing, we believe in what we are doing, and we are enjoying it as a team. I put my team as a priority always, and I believe this makes them very committed and happy to help every time is needed. Is hard for me to write an specific example, but I just try to be my team support in anything they need, all of us know we want to grow the company, and this feeling of being a team is what makes me happy, as well.  

Traditionally youth and young adults outside Guatemala City have many barriers to access professional mental health support. I saw the gap and we are the first solution for them, using technology, to be able to communicate with psychologists. We are not only democratizing the access to mental health, but giving them a completely new line of support. This applies as well for a big amount of psychologists that are under employed for not being able to offer their support to more people. 

Inputs: counseling to youth and young adults by psychologists using a web-based platform. 

Outputs: youth and young adults receive counseling services 

Intermediate outcome: the number of young people with mental health crisis decreases. 

Goal: a sense of wellness among youth and young adults in the region 

We are in a constant evaluation process measuring not only the impact of every conversation users have with our mental health professionals, but also measuring their perception of wellness in their lives. We are still improving our processes since is very hard to measure how good or bad a person feels. 

We are serving: 2500+ users

1 year: 5000+ users

5 years: 20000+ users

Entering the US market this year and being able to help the Central American diaspora will be impafctul for us.

Mental health it's within everything any person does. Covid made us aware of how important is to take care of our mental health. 

Our immediate goal is to offer mental health support for youth during and after the pandemic. Youth are the first to suffer any financial crisis, many jobs are lost and youth in Guatemala and the region will be hit hard. Their mental health is crucial for their resilience and ability to bounce back. Migration from the region to the US can be tackled if they feel better with what they have and with a better self steam. We are offering hours of our service at no cost right now as an investment in this goal.

In five years we want to be the first source of support and professional information to youth and young adults in the region. To be the first help they receive and offer them professional support. We will have enough resources that will give them information about comprehensive sexual education, history of the region, their rights, among others. 

We of course will remain offering hours at no cost and other options to support more youth. 

Connectivity is a big challenge in the region. We are aiming of offering the service even when they don't have data purchased. But geographically there are many areas with no phone reception. 

Another big challenge is for youth to keep putting their mental health as a priority even after Covid. Culturally people don't ask for mental health support, and when they do, they are in a crisis. 

With connectivity we are planning, as said, to offer the service with data being subsidized by us. We are in conversation with local phone companies to brief them on the need of connectivity in certain areas of the country and region, so in 5 years, with their support, coverage should improve. 

Trying to make youth aware of their mental health and prioritize it, is one of our main goals. We have different strategies, from live shows using our social networks, online trainings and talks, visits to schools, and other outreach actions.    

We work closely with two different organizations that hold mental health professionals, they give us the academic support and professionalization options to our current and future psychologists. They also will provide us with up up tp 75 mental health professionals for us to be able to grow our service. 

We work closely too with a virtual reality company with what will be our first therapy service using VR in the region. 

We have the support of the Central American Healthcare Initiative as well working with us in implementing the service in other countries in the region.

TuConsejeria is a web-based solution that allows any people to chat in real time and confidentially with mental health professionals. This tool aslo has been helping to mitigate the effects that the COVID19 crisis has caused in people's lives.  

The platform has a capacity of 200 people connected simultaneously and according to user demand; it has the ability to indefinitely expand the number of mental health professionals. With this strategy, TuConsejería also seeks to be an alternative for generating employment remotely for psychology professionals.

Because it's web-based, it doesn't require downloading anything on the user's phone or computer. This helps minimizing the data consumption and hence the potential cost for the user. The web app also has a simple interface that makes it easy to use for any demographic. 

To access the service, the person only has to create a username and make the payment of USD $ 3.25 (Q25.00), which enables the chat option for one hour of service. This low cost guarantees its accessibility to people who traditionally do not have the opportunity to use this type of care due to different factors (economic, social, geographic, etc.). The user also has the option of selecting a male or female psychologist according to their preference. Service and security protocols follow norms and policies of traditional interventions and therapies; this includes care for minors and people at greater risk, such as women who are victims of violence.

We make a little money for every hour of chat we sell. Our break-even point is 950 paid users (or transactions) per month. We are still re investing every profit we make but increasing the amount of user everyday. Many of our customers are using the service at no cost, but we are converting users to pay almost at half that rate. 

We've been bootstrapping and are really ready to scale up. 

We have been bootstrapping. We have no debt. Our profit margin is more than 75% of every hour of chat that we sell. We are in the process if creating other profitable products. 

We really are open to find any type of funding that will help us scale. We have a preference on debt or grants, but are willing to consider other models such as convertible debt. 

Including salaries and main operations: $ 28,000.00

We aim to offer our mental health to support to as many people as possible. We know youth in the region need this support to overcome many problems, including the current pandemic. We also know that the diaspora in the US is needing this type of support and we want to offer them coming from professionals in their own countries. 

This Prize could help us to be close and available for many of the people we are trying to help. Our scaling path is great and we need this kind of support to be able to make it faster. The context require us to be there to help.

Operating in other countries under the "healthcare" umbrella could be difficult with local laws. We know that we are offering counseling and that helps, but we would like to have support on this. 

We know as well that we need to be able to measure our impact in a better way. We know we are changing and impacting lives directly, but we need data to back this up. 

Being able to share our opportunities with many people is our goal. We would like support to tailor the message accordingly and using the best channels. 

Local diaspora groups, so they can share the benefits of having mental health support and create awareness around the topic. 

Local latinx leaders that can help us create a mental health awareness movement. Culturally is hard for us to ask for help, if leaders can show people how they have asked for help, would be powerful. 

Local Foundations that work with the latinx community so they can support these same efforts and maybe subsidize the use of our service.