Be Me

At Be Me, we are working to address the mental health crisis in South Asian communities in Pakistan and abroad, where mental illness remains highly stigmatized and resources are limited. Mental health issues affect a significant portion of the population, with an estimated 34% (Mirza I, Jenkins R., 2004) of Pakistanis and 25% of the global population experiencing some form of mental illness in their lifetime (WHO, 2001). This is compounded by the fact that mental health is not typically covered by health insurance in most countries, making it difficult for individuals to seek treatment.

Our solution is designed to provide accessible and affordable mental health services to individuals, including therapy, life coaching, and wellness retreats. We aim to reach a large number of people in our local communities, as well as throughout Pakistan and globally, to address the significant mental health challenges facing the world today. 

The joint experience of the founders in Natural and man-made disasters gives us access to underserved populations and policymakers looking to create change in these communities. As we are an online platform, our services can be accessed by anyone having a device and internet connectivity. We also aim to target corporates looking to enhance productivity impacted by the current global economic crisis and populations forced to migrate from their home countries for various reasons, including lack of employment opportunities, ethnic violence, economic instability, and rejection of society due to sexual references. By providing these services, we hope to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness and increase access to care for those who need it most.

Mirza I, Jenkins R. Risk factors, prevalence, and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders in Pakistan: systematic review BMJ 2004; 328 :794 doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7443.794

World Health Organization. (n.d.). The World Health Report 2001: Mental disorders affect One in four people. World Health Organization. Retrieved May 6, 2023, from https://www.who.int/news/item/... 

Be Me's solution aims to 

• Offer a range of services including:

  • Individual Therapy;

  • Group Therapy;

  • Addiction Therapy;

  • Child and Adolescent Counseling;

  • Couple's Therapy;

  • Life Coaching;

  • Employee Wellbeing Packages 

Our services are delivered by qualified mental health and medical professionals (as necessary) and are tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients.

• Our employee well-being services shall encompass:

  • Therapeutic services

  • Support groups and group therapy options

  • Employee Well-being Survey, 

  • Workshops, Assessments and Trainings, 

  • Physical Well-being, 

  • Wellness retreats.

 Our services are designed to help companies foster a positive work culture and support their employees' mental and physical well-being.

Currently, we are utilizing off-the-shelf tools for intake, screening and audio-visual services. However, our HIPAA and GDPR-compliant, customized web platform is under development and is being built on Python, Django framework. Our technology platform allows clients to easily access our services from anywhere and at any time. Clients can schedule appointments, participate in video or phone sessions, and access helpful resources through our user-friendly portal. At Be Me, we are committed to providing high-quality mental health services that are accessible, affordable, and tailored to meet the unique needs of our clients.

Be Me's target population is 

• Primarily Individuals of South Asian descent living globally,  all ages who are seeking mental health assistance, 

• Individuals or communities who are underserved due to limited access to mental health services, the stigma surrounding mental health or are underinsured. 

• Employees of companies who may not have access to employee assistance programs,

• Individuals who may not have the means to afford traditional therapy, 

• Those who may be hesitant to seek help due to cultural or social stigmas.

Additionally, Be Me's employee well-being services provide support to companies and their employees who may need access to comprehensive employee assistance programs.

Our solution provides affordable, accessible, culturally relevant mental health services through evidence-based screening, helping clients to avoid losing time, money and emotional investment.

 Moreover, our solution helps providers to focus more on clinical hours by automating appointment and scheduling, billing and collections. 

• Proximity to the community: 

 The two founders are a mental health professional and a physician, both of who have been on the giving and receiving end of psychosocial support with all communities within Pakistan and to some extent, the south asian diaspora. We understand the mental health climate of the region and have worked in different socio-economic and diverse cultural, religious, urban, and rural settings over the years, building up a rapport and reputation in the development and health sector and belonging to the community itself. Having dealt with our issues, including unemployment, financial struggles, being a woman in Pakistan, mental health breakdowns, and the stigma of being ‘different’ has created an affinity within the community of mutual understanding. Both of us in our rite are public figures, featuring in various podcasts and morning shows and having extensively traveled the country and region in community engagement and rehabilitation post-disaster.

• Community input and engagement:

During the conception stage of our company, we started with focus groups of mental health providers to see the community's needs and gauge the demand for online mental health services and a platform for South Asian communities living globally. After we confirmed a need for our product, we surveyed over 400 participants from different regions of Pakistan and South Asians abroad to see their willingness to engage with a mental health platform to seek therapy. Our product was designed based on our findings, and our pricing strategy is based on the same. As we launched our services, one on one meetings with the providers and consistent feedback-through feedback forms- from both customer bases are giving us insight into how to fine-tune our product to optimize service provision.

• Cultural competency: 

As organic products of Pakistani education, upbringing, and social engagement, the founding team is very well-versed in the intricacies and subtleties of different regions of Pakistan and their culture, language, and ethnicities. As second-generation children of immigrants of the Indo-Pak partition in 1947,  our understanding of generational trauma, ethnic conflict, and Indian allows the team for openness in the understanding of similar collective South Asian cultures as well as the new generation of more individualistic personalities and their struggle of extricating from the collective and the conflict that may ensue in finding their own path and identity.

45 unique users along with 6 mental health providers.

We see great potential for how MIT Solve can help us achieve our mission of addressing the mental health crisis amongst the South Asian communities worldwide. 

Specifically, we believe we can leverage significantly from the mentorship, resources, and connections that MIT Solve can provide us in the areas of: 

• Legal: Through understanding of regulations in the healthcare systems in different markets worldwide. 
• Marketing: Brand identity and marketing strategy to enhance the outreach of our Employee Assistance Program. 
• Human Capital: We aim to connect with like-minded professionals to improve mental health outcomes through evidence-based practice.

Through MIT Solve, we hope to connect with experienced mental healthcare professionals, researchers, and investors who can help us optimize our tele-mental health practices and develop more effective interventions for individuals struggling with mental illness. 

Additionally, we hope to gain access to cutting-edge technologies and tools that can enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of our services.

Furthermore, MIT Solve's global network can provide us with valuable connections and partnerships that can help us scale our impact and reach even more individuals needing mental health support. With the support of MIT Solve, we believe that we can make significant strides in improving mental health outcomes in Pakistan and beyond.

Currently, health care in most parts of the world is approached through word of mouth with no means for the patient/client to gauge the qualifications and expertise of their providers other than their credentials.

In the US accessing mental health is expensive and many insurance providers offer little to no coverage to mental health outpatient care, in turn increasing the burden of out of pocket payments. 

The South Asian communities face a unique problem of lack of cultural relatability of their provider as often the provider is from a different cultural background.

Our solution screens every individual on their clinical needs, affordability,  cultural and gender preferences to match them with the right kind of field expert.

We take an evidence-based approach to improving mental health outcomes by regularly deploying validated surveys accessing our client's mental health status and progress.

Activities: 

Short term: Mental health services to individuals.

Mid-term: Introduction of Employee Assistance Program, in turn reaching out to employees who do not have access to mental health coverage. 

Long-term: Establishing partnerships with academia and government to foster research and capacity building to inform policy around mental health.

Implementation of machine learning logic to improve products to serve our communities better.

Outputs:

Short term: Reaching out to 2000 individuals with a range of mental health services such as therapy, journaling, and self-help tools. 

Midterm: Increased footprint through B2B channels. Helping organizations understand the connection between the psychological well-being of the workforce and the return on investment.

Long term:

Improved health outcomes

Informing policymakers 

Currently, we are using off-the-shelf tools to match and connect our clients and providers. 

However, we are on track to launch our MVP by October 2023. The MVP built on python, django framework will enable us to provide complete data protection and seamless experience to our beneficiaries.

Hosting:

Amazon web services for healthcare.

Diversity: 

As a team we believe in equal opportunities based on value. Our co-founding team currently has 1 female co-founder. Moreover, 5 of our 6 current providers are women.

Equity:

We believe that knowledge and wealth is created by sharing them. Keeping these ethos in mind we thrive to provide equal opportunities to our team. We promote learning and development by offering courses and workshops to our providers and plan to build a free-of-cost resource library through which our providers can be better equipped to serve clients. We are also working on offering ESOP to the first 10 employees at our company as well as advisory shares to professionals.

Inclusion: 

Our target population faces discrimination at multiple levels. Keeping all these nuances in mind we offer an all-inclusive service regardless of caste, creed, ethnicity and gender/ sexual preferences. 

During our onboarding process. We ensure that the provider's bias for all of the above are dealt with for instance a LGBTQ+ client will only be matched to a provider who is conforms to gender norms.