Virtual mental health care has become a massive marketplace. What does this mean for people seeking help?

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Business is booming for mental health apps with demand surging amid the pandemic. But rapid growth has also brought privacy and other concerns. Is there reason to be wary?

it had raised $1.1 million for its “online, integrated mental health solution,” which offers everything from virtual physician visits to daily affirmations for a subscription fee of $99 a month. “With this money Cognito plans to fulfil their vision of expanding to the rest of Canada this year,” wrote CEO and co-founder Jason Cridge in a blog post.

funding round last fall. CEO Balaji Gopalan said at the time “the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the awareness and importance of digital health innovation, establishing a permanent, new normal.”Dr. David Gratzer, attending psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, says there are significant concerns related to what he calls the “appification” of mental health care.

“But if you go to one of these apps and find a therapist who may not be in Ontario, or may not even be in North America, that regulatory safety is gone,” says Gratzer. “When we talk about access, who are you talking about access for? Not everyone has access to the internet, or can use a phone, or see properly,” she says. “The public is not even thinking about the quality of service — they’re stuck on the idea of access.”A chief concern, too, is privacy. While compliance services like MedStack exist, it’s difficult to get a sense of the measures in place to protect users’ sensitive health data — and that data is valuable.

BetterHelp is among the apps listed in the Mozilla privacy report. It is based in Silicon Valley, but its reach is far. Marentette signed up for this service last summer after seeing it advertised online. She says it seemed like she was getting matched with random people, many of whom did not respond to her or promised to get in touch at a later point, but never did.

In Canada, the government’s reaction to the app boom has come in the form of competition, not regulation. In January, it released the PocketWell app, part of the “Wellness Together Canada” platform, which allows users to measure and track their mental well-being as well as access support resources.

 

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