Mental health issues are widespread and continue growing rapidly. There is probably not one person reading this article who’s never known someone experiencing hardships linked to mental health. The World Health Organization estimated in 2019 that 280 million people in the world had depression, while the National Center for Health Statistics estimated in 2021 that 11.7% of the adult population in the U.S. regularly had feelings of worry, nervousness or anxiety.
Mental health is serious, and so is the need for rapid, easily administered, effective mental health diagnosis – in today’s case, perhaps an AI-powered mental health screening capability.
Well, Aiberry offers exactly that. To accelerate the adoption of its platform, Aiberry secured $8 million in seed funding (led by Confluence Capital Group) with participation from the VC fund Ascension AI.
The Aiberry platform enables screenings in a wide range of settings, from doctors’ offices to schools, workplaces, or even homes. Available any time of the day or night, its AI-powered therapeutic assistant's gentle voice and inviting manner makes many users feel at ease.
Mental health patients could be feeling certain emotions (such as anxiety, fear, confusion or sadness), with the possibility of feeling all at once. Those emotions can get in the way of rating their own symptoms and severity levels.
When they feel at ease, it can help them to relax and communicate more openly and honestly with this Aiberry therapeutic assistant, which conducts a conversation to detect mental health disorders by analyzing what is being said, the speech patterns being used, and even subtle changes in facial expressions.
“Traditional methods require patients to rate their own symptoms and severity levels, often answering the same questions repeatedly and typically having a low level of engagement,” said Dr. Tammy Malloy, Chief Operating Officer, Futures Recovery Healthcare. “Aiberry creates an engaging experience by initiating a conversation, during which patients get to talk about what’s on their minds and how they are feeling.”
At the end of each screening, users and clinicians are provided with a risk level score for mental health disorders (including suicidal ideation), in addition to screening insights including mood, concentration and energy levels.
Aiberry's platform offers quantifiable and objective outcomes (tracked over time) that provide a more reliable measure of success. This allows organizations to easily determine which mental health resource is the best investment for their specific needs and goals.
“While many platforms have been developed to provide services ranging from preventative care to self-care and even clinical care, the intake processes and progress monitoring have failed to advance,” said Aiberry co-CEO Linda Chung. “Aiberry is an ideal partner for existing digital health platforms and corporate wellness programs.”
The new funds bring the total funding to $10 million.
Edited by
Alex Passett
