Our goal is to maximize the number of free-of-charge therapy sessions we can provide and people we can help,” adds Podoliev. During the time of war, Mindly has committed to invest 100% of its income in mental health therapy for Ukrainians who currently can’t afford to pay for it themselves. “Therapists are people too, and they are all from Ukraine and in very difficult situations, I feel it unfair to ask them to work for free. And for Mindly, that also includes support for overwhelmed local therapists. Under this dire need, “ the crisis in Ukraine has unleashed a network of online mental health experts.” providing innumerable acts of psychological first aid and virtual visits. In a report on the mental health needs of Ukrainian refugees,The World Health Organization, profiled Olga, a 20-year-old medical student who recently arrived at a refugee shelter in eastern Poland, describing mental health distress typical of the millions who have fled. Ukrainians’ emergency need for therapy is vast. “Entering the Polish market will help us scale and to cover the financial deficit that is created because unfortunately, now many Ukrainians aren’t able to pay for mental health therapy,” adds Podoliev.Ĭrisis in Ukraine has empowered a network of online mental health experts
Mindly’s new market entry into Poland can be considered one more example of Ukrainian startups trying to make the best of an unfathomable reality. Since the start of the invasion, nearly 12 million Ukrainians have become refugees in neighboring countries or find themselves displaced within their own nation. “ The global flow of donations to Mindly’s wartime therapy campaign has already funded over a thousand of sessions, which were provided free-of-charge to Ukrainians in need,” says Podoliev. The majority of Mindly staff remain in Ukraine, making hybrid use of the startup’s Kyiv headquarters and WFH as ground conditions allow. Podoliev announced the new wartime model on March 12, from Mindly’s satellite office in Warsaw as Poland has welcomed nearly 3 million Ukrainian refugees since the war’s start. Pivoting under fire: Podoliev’s plan to bankroll virtual mental health therapy But how could a startup marketplace for psychologists pivot to pay for thousands of therapy sessions it provides to Ukrainians who currently can’t afford to pay for it themselves? Mindly’s provision of wartime therapy at this scale is both impressive and necessary. But by the end of the summer, we have plans to scale to 50,000 users,” adds Podoliev. It’s super hard to plan for the year because now we are living day to day and maximum week to week. “Since the start of war and our wartime pivot, we have more than 3,000 users and have conducted more than 1,000 sessions in the first three weeks. Startup leaders like Podoliev acted nimbly to pivot business models, adapt IT skills to wartime efforts, and carry out contingency plans for staff to work remotely from basements, bomb shelters, and cars. With over 2,000 startups proliferating in Ukraine pre-war, the country’s tech founders have displayed self-organization under pressure.
#Mindly help free#
Our goal is to provide quality therapy which yields results, not just one or two free sessions.” “All the money we make goes entirely to pay for therapy sessions provided to Ukrainians in need who currently can’t afford to pay for it themselves.
After the start of the war, we converted it to make mental health therapy accessible to all Ukrainians, even to those who currently are in dire financial conditions and can’t afford to pay for it themselves,” says Dimitri Podoliev, CEO and co-founder of Mindly. “In 2021, I started Mindly, a mental health platform for online therapy. That’s the newfound wartime mission statement of Mindly, a Kyiv-founded startup which connects clients to licensed therapists through an end-to-end mental health platform for online therapy that offers AI-powered patient care and clinical admin automation. Mental health care should be accessible to all Ukrainians.
0 kommentar(er)
