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Contxto – Food and grocery delivery startups aren’t the only ones seeing a rise in activity due to the coronavirus pandemic.
For better or worse, remote therapy startups are also seeing a rise in registered patients and mental health professionals, as Brazilian healthtechs Zenklub and Vittude can attest. Within a week, both startups observed a significant surge of total users.
As a result, they’re both taking their own approaches to make the situation more bearable for these newcomers and within the context of all this coronavirus craze.
Related article: 10 startups giving Brazilians peace of mind
More users in pandemic times
From March 16 to the 21, Vittude reports having a 318 percent increase in patients and an 835 percent in psychologists on its platform compared to the previous week. Within that same timeframe, Zenklub saw a 30 percent jump in users and a 500 percent increase in therapists.
As a result, Vittude launched a more inexpensive therapy consultation. Known as Diátio da Quarentena, through this service patients can talk to a mental health professional for 50 minutes by paying R$20 (US$4).
Meanwhile Zenklub is innovating its ZenOffice product to help mental health professionals new to digital solutions ease their transition into this medium. One of its advantages is that it helps in offline patient management with no commission owed to Zenklub.
Related article: Latin American startups versus Covid-19
Your time to shine?
Like other startups that suddenly find themselves flooded with requests and users, healthtechs that work with remote solutions have an opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of their product.
So while a rise in users can be viewed as something positive, this overload must be well-managed so as to not disappoint or further stress. Otherwise, it can backfire and lead to a negative image.
If it paves out well, it means more users for the medium to long term.
I’ve got to get out of here!!!
Perhaps everyone’s initial reaction to staying at home was a celebrated one.
No more commutes to work, spend more time with the fam, and hello free time!
Regrettably, not everybody’s transition to self-quarantine lockdown has been a seamless experience. Anxiety and depression can easily become byproducts of staying cooped up for too long.
That partly explains the increase in these startups’ respective userbases.
Just the same, mental health professionals are likely signing up to compensate for the drop in in-person consultations.
Because in the end coronavirus really is challenging every aspect of our lives including our mental health. As we settle into this new and unexpected reality, it’s important to address our psyche.
Facetime with someone you trust, exercise, stroll through your backyard, seek professional help.
It’s okay to be overwhelmed. What’s not is to keep it bottled up.
Wanna hear more? We recommend you listen to the following podcast episode: Capitalizando la pandemia. You can find the time stamp available in the description.
Related articles: Tech and startups from Brazil!
-ML
