F004 Tackling mental health with digital health? (Dean Ornish - UCSF; Ritvik Singh - Psyinnovations; Richard Lee - Bravely)

According to WHO mental health disorders are generally characterized by some combination of abnormal thoughts, emotions, behaviour and relationships with others. Examples are schizophrenia, depression, intellectual disabilities and disorders due to drug abuse. Most of these disorders can be successfully treated. This episode explores the characteristics of mental health disorders and why it is so hard to treat them. Hear from three speakers: Dean Ornish, Clinical Professor in Medicine, President and Director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute at University of California Sans Francisco talks about the critical aspect of depression, which is the changes in perception that prevent a depressed person to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The Co-founder and CEO of Psyinnovations Ritvik Singh talks about the broadness of mental health challenges and to which extent digital solutions can help address them. Richard Lee, the CEO of a startup called Bravely, believes regular 5-minute power calls with peers can have a significant positive effect on individuals wellbeing. This is what Bravely does: short, peer to peer phone support as a replacement traditional psychotherapeutic counselling.