Mental health app for Ukrainian refugees and war survivors

Russian invasion to Ukraine has lead the world to the biggest migration crisis since the end of the Second World War. Since the beginning of this war there are  already 8 million refugees outside Ukraine and 5,9 million refugees are  displaced inside the country to a relatively safer regions.

Unfortunately, there is the highest risk of PTSD among refugees and witnesses of war. As meta-analysis of 181 studies found that refugees and asylum seekers have high rates of mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety - study found that 9 to 31% of refugees suffer from ptsd, 5 to 44% from depression and 6 to 44% from anxiety. 

As now 13.9 million people potentially need psychological help, according to the estimates of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine, there are only about 60 thousand specialists in the country.

Our solution is an ecosystem of psychological support for refugees and war survivors around the world, including information about the effects of psychological trauma, the creation of a supportive community, and training in self-help practices through digital platforms.

Based on the increasing use of mobile apps and online mental health services in Ukraine, and the fact that it is impossible to find enough psychologists, we have decided to set up services with online access from anywhere in the world as soon as possible.We created a program of psychological support for refugees based on scientifically proven methods of psychological help. 

We had 150 people in the program and you can see their testimonies by clicking here.

We created a community of women from all over the world.We are at the stage of creating the MVP mobile app, which in the future should scale our project.

Our solution will allow people to have quick and easy access to a platform for mutual assistance, support and information on the maintenance of their mental health, will provide tools for self-help (allow regular diagnosis of psychological condition)

Our solution is suitable for more than 13 million victims of hostilities in Ukraine (according to the UN more than 8 million refugees from Ukraine recorded across Europe and more than 5 million internally displaced people in Ukraine):

- Refugees forced to leave the country, who found temporary shelter in neighboring countries (mainly women (both with and without children)) (more than 8 million refugees from Ukraine recorded across Europe, according to the UN)

- Internally displaced from occupied territories and from dangerous regions to safer ones (according to UN data, more than 5 million internally displaced people in Ukraine)

- Staying in Ukraine in the area of potential danger, suffering from threatening stress

What do these people face:

- scared of their own reactions

- not getting support

- insufficiently informed about how their psyche reacts to stress

A meta-analysis of 181 studies found that refugees and asylum seekers have high rates of mental health problems, including PTSD, depression, and anxiety The study found that 9 to 31 percent of refugees suffer from PTSD, 5 to 44 percent suffer from depression, and 6 to 44 percent suffer from anxiety (source: Steel et al., 2009; Alpak et al., 2015).

13.9 million people are potentially in need of help (according to the UN). The National Psychological Association of Ukraine estimates that there are there are about 60,000 specialists. Thus, there is a shortage of psychological help - more than 13 million people. The use of mobile applications and online mental health services in Ukraine is growing. Therefore an ecosystem of a mobile app, an online course, and an online community is the best solution because of its accessibility. Therefore an ecosystem of a mobile app, an online course, and an online community is the best solution because of its accessibility.

Our solution will allow people to have quick and easy access to a platform for mutual assistance, support and information on the maintenance of their mental health, will provide tools for self-help (allow regular diagnosis of psychological condition)

Our team consists of a psychological unit, a technological unit, and a customer service unit.

Most of the team was forced to leave their country and faced the consequences of adapting to life in another country. 

We regularly collect feedback on the programWe regularly collect fresh and relevant inquiries from prospective program participants and update the program as requested (in group and individual format, written and live).

We have weekly meetings with the community, where we update the dynamics of their condition and collect their current agenda.

We have ambassadors from our program participants who scale our solution.

We incorporate program alumni into our quality improvement workflows.

Ukrainian psychologists were involved at the stage of concept development and filling of the product, and we plan to continue cooperation with them.

125 participants completed our online course

80 members of our online community

929 social media followers

Reach in social networks - 140,000 accounts

The thing is that our team has no experience in the nonprofit sector. We combine the competences of technology, psychology, customer service. But none of us knows how to transform these competencies into a strong and really useful product, service and enterprise for the target audience. And for us as well as for our target audience, first the Ukrainian refugees and then all the people who found themselves in the situation of refugees and witnessing the war, there is a great chance that there is such a special world progressive hub at the forefront of solving social problems through the synergy of the business approach and technological approach.

A unique set of competencies of people who live this situation with their own skin and biography. This is precisely why we need external forces that can be used as leverage in relation to knowledge, which we are only now grasping, while you already have international experience and the most advanced. And we need to save time in order to be able to help as many people as possible and offer the best solution in the refugee situation.

The innovation of our project is in the mix of approaches: we are bilding ecosistem which mission is not to leave a war survivor alone.

The ecosistem itself consist of:
- Firstly, online course which is the enitial PTSD preventer and educator;
- Secondly, on a comunity of our abassadors after the cource supporting each other;
- Thirdly, mobile application which is a sourse of quick instruments to take care of oneselves in order not to be left alone in the expirience of trauma of war witnesing or refuging.

Thus, our approach the combination of three main approaches:
- ecological support
- informational\wellness compain
- educational

Our impact goals for next year:
- We want to reach 5,000 Ukrainian refugees and war witnesses

To do this, we will:
- Release the MVP of a psychological support mobile app
- Conduct 6 streams of an online course
- Hold a 3-day offline retreat for refugees in Europe
- Develop a P2P format of interaction in our community

Our impact goals for the next 5 years:
- We want to reach 10% of Ukraine's traumatized population
- We see ourselves as an ecosystem integrated with other technology products

To achieve this, we:
- Partner with cutting-edge trauma care expert practitioners to translate their approach into a digital format
- Integrate AI to simulate a dialogue with a therapist on an individual request
- Conduct integration with wearable heart rate variability devices to better diagnose the psychological state of users
- Conduct integration with existing services helping refugees with employment, housing, legal, medical and other issues
- Adding a social networking function: a community in the mobile app, dating and communication, support in social adaptation

Right now we majer the effectevness of our project by folowing criterias:

- feedback from our participants for online courses, our rate is now 9.3

- the number of subscribers in our social networks

- number of course requests

- number of participants on the course

- number of enthusiasts who join the alumni club after the course

In the future after the mobile application on the market would launch:

- Self-diagnostics by the internal questionnaire of the MF in the dynamics over time

- Subjective evaluation of the user's benefit:

            - subjective sense of stress level,

            - the return of a sense of subjectivity,

            - possibility to make further plans

- User activity (what % of regular and progressing self-diagnosis)

- Total number of users receiving support

- Increase in users per month

- Testing on Beck scales: depression, anxiety over time

- Testing for PTSD risks over time

- Number of users who came by recommendation

Our theory of change is in our mission and is a newest approach for post trauma recovery: trauma is already unfair enough so no one should be left alone in it. For previous generations of a humankind trauma was about the shame and loneliness. Our mission is to switch from that previous philosophy of trauma (which actually gives lot more power to the invader, to the violator) to the modern humanistic approach about post trauma as an experience getting vibe supporties live community.

Our theory of change is in approach that getting post trauma skills for your own recovering, for community recovering should be as "fashionable", as ''on the go'' method as now we useful Duolingo as for language studding and as Coursera for high school classes studding or as Match.com for dates making.

Our theory of change is that the combination of the psychological healing power of the addictionable community (find a word that reflects the creation of addiction through a digital application like Duolingo does) and find a skill education (our super mission is to fool the shortage of psychologists in the Ukrainian market, when refugees are 8 million abroad and 5 million in the country and psychologists 60 thousand, we must make psychological support as available option).

We regularly survey our online course participants and based on 137 feedback questionnaires, we received an average course effectiveness score of 9.3 out of 10.

Our technology is a combination of:
- rapid informational/educational resources by mobile application devoted to PTSD prevention;
- intense online course (consisting of regular Zoom-meetings and interactive communication in Telegram) of psychological support and ecological adaptation of refugees/war survivors experience;
- online community (also consisting of regular Zoom-meetings and interactive communication in Telegram) mutual support each other by course allumnies which gives boost effect for the previous two phases and turnes suvivors in to supporters for each other.

We are creating an ecosystem where we want to organize the funding of our project in such a way that we can give paid work to Ukrainian psychologists and developers, as well as any other Ukrainian professionals who are forced to lose their jobs and need professional and financial support to implement their professional projects and initiatives, be it playback theater, creating a documentary film, ballet or yoga classes, copywriting, marketing, etc.

These are the kinds of initiatives our alumnae voiced:
- An art club and playback theater from an alumna based in Gdansk
- a documentary or children's cartoon from an alumna who is in Montreal
- online classes in dance-fusion from a ballerina in Italy
- a project for the social recovery of the conscripts from an alumna based in the German countryside
- a copywriting service to promote PTSD prevention and psychological recovery from a participant in Kharkiv

A mobile psychological support platform for refugees and war survivors:

We Help:

- refugees and war survivors in Ukraine

- people experiencing the psychological consequences of military conflicts as victims and refugees

- people who have experienced psychological traumaSurvivors of trauma nowPeople going through stress and pressure of circumstances

- people working on their mental health

In a situation where:

- they are in a depressed/unstable emotional state

- their stress level is elevated and classic behavior is not coping

- their significant other/relative/friend is in trouble

Address the problem:

- a psyche that is not coping with new challenges

- adapting to new circumstances

- rebuilding one's life

- integration into a new society

- improving the quality of life when you are not satisfied with your current level

With the help of the psychological support and care service teplo:

- the mobile application contains a program of 8 self-help topics/areas, including recommendations, exercises, techniques and practices to improve the mental/psychological condition

- consultations by specialists are available to the participants

- a knowledge base of training and expert content is available to participants through courses, articles, webinars and lectures

- we develop a community for communication and support

And obtain value/results for the end user:

- understand (be informed) about how their own psyche, brain and body work

- know and use tools to improve mental well-being

- systemically improve the quality of life (know how and do it)

- reduce the burden of responsibility

- feel cared for and supported

- ease the process of integrating into a new society

Income streams:

Sponsorship:

- support for companies/businesses/corporations

         - b2b funding

         - social programs of large corporations and brands

- foundation support

          - b2g funding

          - private foundations

          - government funding for refugee programs

- crowdfunding

           - crowdfunding platforms

           - digital philanthropy - when an individual wants to pay for a service for a person/group

Platform business model (partnerships with third parties) :

- to sell services to therapists (commission)

- for companies and sites (commission/sales leads for them from our client base)

- we get paid for the opportunity to place on the site

Advertisement:

- books (psychology/self-development) - publishers and authors

- events

- foundations and programs

- relocation (integration) companies and organizations 

- online courses/medicine/sports/yoga practice

- sales of wearable devices

Our plan of income streams:

1. Sponsorship:

- support for companies/businesses/corporations

         - b2b funding

         - social programs of large corporations and brands

- foundation support

          - b2g funding

          - private foundations

          - government funding for refugee programs

- crowdfunding

           - crowdfunding platforms

           - digital philanthropy - when an individual wants to pay for a service for a person/group

2. Platform business model (partnerships with third parties) :

- to sell services to therapists (commission)

- for companies and sites (commission/sales leads for them from our client base)

- we get paid for the opportunity to place on the site

3. Advertisement:

- books (psychology/self-development) - publishers and authors

- events

- foundations and programs

- relocation (integration) companies and organizations 

- online courses/medicine/sports/yoga practice

- sales of wearable devices

We are just starting the process of fundraising.