Philanthropy can play an important role in the development of new digital mental health resources, said an expert writing in Inside Philanthropy this week.
Mental health has received increased public attention due to the pandemic. Needs have been exposed — and in many cases, met — to a greater degree than before, some experts say. Loneliness, depression and other issues have been elevated as points of focus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among other notable groups.
Many advances have occurred due to the urgency of the public health emergency. Technological advances such as smartphones have been greatly exploited, and their use has been boosted by waivers during the pandemic.
“Philanthropy finds itself suddenly and uniquely positioned to contribute to mental health all along this digital frontier,” wrote Anna Bobb, MPH, the founder and managing partner of Vredeveld Strategies, a philanthropy advisory firm based in Washington, DC. “Philanthropic institutions are perfectly situated to innovate in the space between policy, business and healthcare.”
Philanthropy can play an important role in driving growth, particularly through new apps, both on the demand and supply side, Bobb noted. It also can complement the public healthcare sector by pushing a reimagining of mental health strategy, especially with regards to the digitalization of healthcare, she said.
A “high-value project” that philanthropic bodies could assist with would be vetting the voluminous software and devices flooding the digital mental health market. Bobb explained that minority communities also could find better connections to appropriate mental health professionals with better digital apps.
She lauded events already underway, such as the US Agency of Health Research and Quality’s recent proposal on a framework for evaluating apps based on efficacy, privacy and clinical relevance. In addition, the Society for Digital Health is convening experts, practitioners and policymakers to refine this work with an eye toward establishing standards and a pathway to reimbursement, she added.
“Philanthropists could build an evaluation tool to catalog apps that specialize in specific treatment modalities or serve specific at-risk populations with culturally competent providers — forecasting the social, as well as the financial, value of each app,” Bobb said. “Like Amazon, which functions as much as a platform for merchants and distributors as for consumers, philanthropy could spur the growth of digital mental healthcare on the demand and supply side.”
She also advocated for development of an “independent, impartial rating system developed by philanthropy” that could take input from consumers and providers to improve the mental health space. Ride service Uber successfully uses such a system.
“Doing so would help address challenges private capital won’t touch because they’re too complex or serve a market too small,” Bobb noted. “Rather than duplicating the work of private enterprise or public policy, philanthropy can also take on app development, tackling social needs that are now being left behind.”
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