From local startup to global contender
Have you seen that movie, ‘Dumb and Dumber’?” Mind You Mental Health Systems founder and CEO Yuri Marshall asked Lifestyle during an interview. He cited the scene where Jim Carrey’s goofy character Lloyd asks a sophisticated woman what their chances of getting together would be. When the woman tells him it’s one in a million, all Lloyd hears is that he has a chance and responds with an ecstatic “Yes!”
That was how Marshall told his team about competing in the Global Startup Awards (GSA) after Mind You’s surprise win as a regional finalist for Best HealthTech Startup at the Associated of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) level. “But they still have that ‘impostor syndrome,’” he says.
The Philippines isn’t exactly top of mind when it comes to discussions about technology or mental health care. And even with mental illness as the third most common disability in the country for years now, the Department of Health (DOH) still estimates only three mental health professionals for every 100,000 Filipinos.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) placed the numbers even lower, with one psychiatrist and one psychiatric nurse for every 200,000 people, and only one psychologist for every one million.
Which is why the homegrown startup’s victory over other countries at the regional Asean Startup Awards came as such a surprise. The win, however, felt like a validation of the team’s hard work over the last four years.
“I think it’s also a validation of the Mental Health Act. The act gave permission for someone like us to come in and make a difference,” the Australian-Filipino added, admitting that he didn’t even want to participate in the competition in the beginning due to his aversion to award nominations that usually seem more like “a PR thing” than an actual reflection of a company’s impact and worth.
But when he ignored the anonymous nomination, the independent international award-giving body contacted them to address his misgivings.
Accessible and affordable
Mind You provides a confidential platform that provides accessible and affordable mental health services by connecting users with mental health professionals, scheduling virtual sessions and accessing self-help resources.
It also conducts webinars, trainings and awareness campaigns; collaborates with local schools, businesses and government entities (having served over 40 different industries so far) to promote mental health education and support; and offers counseling services in multiple languages and dialects to ensure inclusivity.
“And we have a hotline now!” Marshall added. Revealing that it was a hotline that saved his life when he was suicidal back in Australia, he shared that it has been his secret passion to create a suicide hotline in the Philippines that works.
In 2021, the DOH reported that 1.5 million youth attempted to take their own lives. In the same year, the agency received 5,167 suicide calls through their hotline (tel. 0966-3514518).When the DOH (now also a client of Mind You) asked them to audit its hotlines, Marshall said they were a bit surprised. “Why is the system not good?”
With the help of grants from the Australian government and the Australian Agency for International Development, Mind You was able to create its own hotline after four years of development. Currently in the beta-testing phase, the hotline will be launched officially during the National Mental Health Summit in October.
The digital hotline can be accessed with a button on the platform. Marshall explained that they did that to reduce cost.
The hotline uses an intelligent AI resource model that triages people but there are still operators who answer the phones. It uses a methodology adopted from Australia to deescalate the situation, but in case things go the other way, Mind You can provide intervention resources as well.
Stigma
Suicide is highly underreported in the Philippines due to the stigma surrounding it. That’s why Mind You recognizes the urgency of tackling their mission of destigmatization of mental health and saving lives.
“People don’t realize that their mental health can lead to physical health, immunity reduction. Daily work stress makes your immunity go down. But people don’t still understand the science behind that. I want to increase the education there,” said Marshall.
“You need to exercise, because that’s going to mitigate your mental health risk. You need to manage your finances well, because that’s going to mitigate your risk. You need to talk. Talk therapy is more accessible than paying P10,000 for some wellness retreat.”
With Mind You, it costs only around P1,000 to get help and the company is trying to drive the price even lower to around P500 or P300. “If we democratize that, I think we can make a significant social impact over the next five to 10 years.”
As for Mind You’s original goal of helping a million people in five years, he admitted that they are way off, putting the current number at just around 150,000 people.
But the slow burn is a good thing. According to Marshall, he deliberately held back Mind You’s scalability because he was afraid of the startup imploding if they grew too quickly.
Their mission
They’re also trying to simplify their mission, he said. “What we’re communicating now to our staff, and even to our partners and our clients, is that Mind You is not just not a platform, we’re actually a lifeline.”
Since Mind You was created back in 2020 following the enactment of the mental health bill, Marshall has noticed that there are more vendors now. “I think we started the tidal wave and then it gave permission for a lot more interest for private participation.”
And while the field is currently a bit competitive, Marshall sees it as a good thing and is even thinking about sharing their technology in the future with those who need assistance in that area, essentially turning competitors into collaborators.
“That’s the goal,” he said. “According to the WHO, 15.4 million people have been diagnosed with mental illnesses in the Philippines. So, there’s not a lack of customers. There’s a lack of suppliers. There’s no need to compete.”
With all its accomplishments in such a short period of time, there’s still a sense of doubt among the team when it comes to their standing at the GSA. On average, the global competition receives between 3,000 and 5,000 applications per season per region.
Now, the competition for best health tech has come down to only nine countries, including Denmark, Israel, United Arab Emirates, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Czechia and Turkiye.
It might be hard not to view Mind You as just “a small company in a small country, competing against Europe and the Americas.” But Marshall keeps reminding his team that they thought the same about Asean. “But we won that. Now, let’s go global.”
