Seeking mental health requires mental health
The process of finding a mental health provider can be both complicated and costly for the average individual, where finding a suitable professional might take months of research, cold calling, and switching therapists.
Professional support
Partner with mental health professionals to develop a better matching algorithm so that users are more often matched to therapists best suited for their care. Additionally, expand the user base by absorbing existing clients of partnered professionals
More personal preferences
Integrate more personalized preferences that users can input to make the matching even more successful. For example, the urgency of the user’s issue might affect which therapists they get matched with
Improved feedback
Implement a feedback system where if the user was not happy about the initial match, they can submit a form indicating what went wrong, and the system will then adjust preferences based on the new information to make better matches
Future Plans
WHY IS FINDING A THERAPIST SO HARD?
“We no longer accept your insurance.”
“I’m only in my New York office one day a week and I only have one opening [that happens to be during your work hours].”
“I’m so sorry, but I only take that insurance for my relationship counseling, not individual therapy.”
Catherine Kirch
Accessibility
Patient Care
1
Talkspace
2
Zencare
3
TheraMatch
Matching
Taking a look at some of the biggest startups in the space, it’s clear to us that companies like Talkspace and Zencare heavily lack either accessibility or personalized matching, both of which are crucial to helping patients find suitable therapists faster. We gave Talkspace 1 star on patient care because patients are only able to connect with their therapists via text on an inconsistent schedule. We gave Zencare a 1 star for accessibility because they only offer their services in 9 cities across the country. For matching, we found that Talkspace and Zencare both use basic filtering and surveys to help pair the patient with a therapist, which we found to be highly ineffective and can often cause patients to require many more matches until finding a satisfactory professional. In comparison, TheraMatch allows for users to match with therapists all across the country based on personalized preferences in a safe virtual environment.