Digest #8 — Where to start in mhTech
For MHPs wanting to explore the tech world
👋 Hiya, I’m Harshali and you’re reading the weekly digest on the mental health tech economy and it’s people.
Wake me up, when September ends – and no kidding September is about to end already. This month I’ve been in the middle of hosting loved ones, bidding goodbye to people and places, and preparing to move cities. Come October, home will be a new place. Writing has yet again taking a back seat, but something happened that made me come back to pen a short but brief digest #8.
Where to start learning about mhTech
I meet a lot of MHPs. Some via friends, others via shared professional circles, most via LinkedIn who reach out for a chat.
Conversations meander until they boils down to the one topic on everyone’s mind.
Seeing clients as a means of earning income is an unsustainable long term plan. While I want to keep seeing clients, it feels like I should be doing more – but I don’t know what that is? Where do I even begin?!
A couple of weeks ago I met with counselling psychologist Arya Prasad. Then, last weekend, I had a long lovely chat with dear friend and perinatal mental health expert Poornima Mahendru.
In both these conversations we ended up talking about developing more than a clinical lens to mental health. Developing a business lens, a technology lens. And there in came the question – where do we begin. I came home and put together a list. This list I share below.
Resources for MHPs to get started in the world of Technology and Business
🧑🤝🧑 Forums
OneHealthTech: The Mental Health Specialist Network
Why its good: Its a great place to meet people from around the world interested in mhTech, working various different roles. Join their slack if you want to meet people.Behavioural Health Business
Why it’s good: The title says it all. They talk about the rise and fall of orgs, funding and bankruptcy, hiring and firing, new and old tech – just about everything under the umbrella for mhTech biz.Behavioural Health Tech
Why its good: Their events and talks give a good overview of topics of global concern in the mental health and tech industry.
🗞️ Newsletters
The Hemingway Report by Steve Duke
Why it’s good: Steve puts in a whole lot of research in his writing and it shows. His writing feels honest and personal. His LinkedIn is a shorter, faster read of the latest news in mhTech. Personally, I really enjoy his long forms on Substack.Psychiatry in the Margins by Awis Aftab
Why it’s good: This is a newsletter about exploring critical, philosophical, and scientific debates in psychiatric practice. Awis himself is a psychiatrist and writes from experience. While more focused on the clinical lens, I’ve only recently begun reading this newsletter and have found the criticality intriguing.In the past I’ve written about tech product categories in mhTec:
🖲️ Organisations
The PARC
Why it’s good: while most of PARC’s efforts are in clinical training, they often organise events and sessions to educate MHPs on the business of therapy and counselling, an extremely crucial topic for sustainability of any practise.
📋 Projects
Project Sukoon:
Why it’s good: Sukoon is India’s first Digital Public Infrastructure project. Think creation of knowledge base and repositories that are public, upon which everyone is free to build mental health projects. Great place to understand public mhTech and what it entails. In fact, Sukoon is looking for clinicians for their team, its a paid role. Details below
📌 Project Sukoon Job Post 📌
We are seeking licensed therapists to lend their expertise in a project aimed at developing a chatbot solution for college students. We are working on this as part of Sukoon, an initiative under People+AI, (non-profit backed by Rohini & Nandan Nilekani), dedicated to developing mental health solutions through a technology-first and DPI-driven approach.
Compensation for this volunteer role will be negotiated on an hourly basis, reflective of the time and expertise contributed. Interested candidates can read further about the role here, and reach out to tanisha@peopleplus.ai
This job post is unsponsored.
Weekly Conundrums by @ditiiee
If you enjoyed this read, consider subscribing or sharing it with a friend who’s interested in mhTech!
Connect with me, Harshali, on LinkedIn, I’m always looking to meet people working in mhTech. 💌
Until next time,
Harshali