“From hyperpersonalized text messages and nudges, to quizzes and sleep apps, technology is creating new ways for employers to engage their employees in benefits, healthcare and wellness . . . New technologies are becoming an absolute necessity for companies, and HR leaders are adopting artificial intelligence to make more data-driven decisions.”

The piece continues to explain: “Behind this industry transformation are our 2020 Digital Innovators — the individuals and teams driving these technologies and making such innovations possible.”

How was the Top 20 list created? “After poring through nominations from Employee Benefit News readers, editors weighed each of the candidates to select this year’s honorees.”

Supportiv users routinely feel better after just one chat, and that has helped some of the country’s largest employers and insurance companies prioritize employee wellbeing.

Supportiv is proud to have been included in this list, and is excited to see how our nation transforms as employers increase efforts to maintain well workplaces.

The post EBN Names Supportiv As A Top 20 Digital Workplace Innovator appeared first on Supportiv.

Download the full whitepaper on our homepage, here.

Read the full press release, here.

Loneliness, anxiety, depression, stress, and other emotional struggles have been closely linked with physical health impacts. But in this era of constant struggle and deaths of despair, we have few tools ready to take on the sheer volume of pain in America today.

Dr. Rosemary Ku, author of the whitepaper and physician with dual board certifications in Internal Medicine and Preventative Medicine, speaks to a possible solution to our escalating mental and physical health crises:

“The healthcare system is designed to intervene when conditions become severe and is not equipped to address the challenges of daily life struggles. Peer support has been identified as an effective intervention to fill this gap, instill greater emotional well-being, and improve health outcomes for a wide range of mental and physical health issues.”

Dr. Ku, who holds an MD and MBA from Columbia, and an MPH from UC Berkeley, continues, distilling the promise of online peer support:

“By increasing social connectedness and providing both emotional and tactical support for day-to-day stressors, peer support is a low-cost, effective service that can serve as a standalone offering or complementary to disease management programs.”

Other topics covered in the whitepaper are the accessibility advantages of online peer support, and the competitive efficacy of peer support in relation to traditional therapies like CBT, psychotherapy, and even antidepressant medication.

One last key point from the whitepaper–when evaluating an online peer support program, Dr. Ku recommends considering the following criteria:

• Evidence-based program
• On-demand access
• “Rigorously selected, trained, and supervised” moderators
• Scalability
• Data security to ensure privacy and legal compliance

Peer support can be just as effective as more traditional mental wellness modalities; and both users and service providers may also benefit from its greater accessibility, lesser cost, and focus on self-empowerment rather than disorder.

Download the full whitepaper on our homepage, here.

Read the full press release, here.

The post Supportiv Whitepaper Synthesizes Research On Under-Utilized Mental Health Solution appeared first on Supportiv.

Psych Hub Partners are “organizations that have committed to the well being of their communities, colleagues and peers,” and Supportiv is proud to be part of the bunch.

With the partnership, Supportiv users now have access to specially curated Psych Hub content, providing helpful tips for a wide range of issues.

In Supportiv chats, expect to receive precision resource recommendations for your specific struggle. Featured Psych Hub videos are short, sweet, and speak to:

• young caregivers
• COVID-19 and violence in the home
• supporting a loved one who doesn’t want help
• guided meditation for times of stress
• unwanted memories
• elder abuse
• medical providers and compassion fatigue
• grief
• coping with job loss
• major depression
• and many more diverse topics

Click “Chat Now” to join a realtime peer support chat, with other people going through similar struggles. Feel heard, understood, and supported, while receiving helpful video, article, and worksheet recommendations to take action and feel better.

The post Supportiv Announces Psych Hub Partnership appeared first on Supportiv.

Flashback: Summer of 2018

Supportiv was a team of about 20, opening its beta peer support service to the public in June 2018. It was a simpler time, when we could travel anywhere and freely congregate in crowds. We started with a trickle of user traffic, attracting only 400 users our first month. Most chats were one-on-one between an anonymous user and the Supportiv peer support moderator, as the critical mass of concurrent users needed to realize our vision of real-time, topic-matched peer support groups, each led by a highly trained moderator, was still a ways off. 

What was everyone struggling with back then? 

[Note: We’re taking a one-month data snapshot for comparative purposes —June 2018 vs. June 2020— and using the same AI-driven natural language processing that underpins the proprietary Supportiv user-to-user and user-to-resource matching capabilities to analyze troves of chat transcripts for topic clusters, sentiments, and themes.] 

It was the summer of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the early outpourings of the #MeToo movement. Supportiv started seeing user patterns around anonymous divulgence of past sexual trauma, and high levels of anxiety around political issues, in addition to typical mental wellbeing issues like depression, anxiety, and sexuality. Worries and conflicts among personal relationships: romantic, family, and friends rounded out the daily life struggle discussions. 

Chart 1: Struggle Topic Distribution, June 2018

Time Jump to Present Day: Summer of 2020 

Supportiv is now a team of over 300, all collaborating remotely given the state of the world. In June 2020, we served over 70,000 monthly users. (July saw additional record growth).

Most users are experiencing what we first envisioned: Getting matched (in about 30 seconds) into live, human-moderated chats with a small group of peers who all immediately understand each other and relate because our NLP has determined that they’re struggling with the same stuff. Then they receive hyper-personalized resources that auto-surface as hyperlinks in the chat as the conversation evolves. How’d they get matched to other users and resources? They all answered just one single question “What’s your struggle?”(TM) with some short free text. No forms, no profiles, no assessments detracting from the experience in any way. 

How has the distribution of topics and struggles evolved in 2020? 

Last month, the Kaiser Family Foundation published survey results showing that the rates of anxiety and depression among US adults had tripled during the Covid-19 pandemic. User volume increases reflect the surge in emotional need, and yet Supportiv is not witnessing a disproportionate spike in these particular diagnoses vs. all other struggles. We proudly enable users to freely describe how they’re feeling without a diagnosis or clinical labeling. The volume increase in struggles across all topics has kept the original proportions intact. 

What has noticeably spiked are struggles related to loneliness. Knowledge that there is a loneliness epidemic has been around since at least 2018. What’s changed is that in 2020, it’s no longer unusual to talk about being lonely. In adherence with social (physical) distancing, few have meaningfully interacted with friends or acquaintances in months. While conceptually loneliness and isolation are distinct, the average pandemic-grappling person does not distinguish between the two. To many, loneliness just is. 

Also showing proportional increases as struggle topics are relationship issues, sexuality issues, and abuse. Thematic chat analysis shows that these themes are the byproducts of living in close quarters and constant contact with immediate households, without normal social outlets. 

Chart 2: Struggle Topic Distribution, June 2020

As the pandemic stretches onward indefinitely, frontline workers —in healthcare, crisis support, retail, essential services, etc.—are bearing the heavy burden of trauma-related stress. Increasing numbers are personally touched by the grief of untimely loss of loved ones. The current, and long buried, experiences of racial discrimination scar. Parents are at their wits ends. Uncertainty about the upcoming national/state/local elections further escalates anxiety. The emotional whiplash of simply staying plugged-in to news cycles to be an informed citizen takes an additional toll. 

Meanwhile, the images we see on social media remain largely upbeat, projections of the life we wish we were living. The already fragile social (emotional) support system that many people rely upon in day-to-day life continues to erode. 

Supportiv had planned to be The Support Network go-to in “normal” times, setting out with the mission to repair the social fabric. These abnormal times have exponentially intensified the need, and thus, we accelerate the pace of growth to meet the need with open arms. 

For more information on Supportiv, we’re reachable at info@supportiv.com and at 1-800-845-0015.

Read the full 2nd anniversary report from Supportiv’s co-founder and CEO, Helena Plater-Zyberk, here.

The post Peer Support at Supportiv, 2 Years and 500,000+ Users Later: What Everyone Is Worried About appeared first on Supportiv.

The panel, which included other successful Columbia entrepreneurs like Sylvana Sinha, Usama Javed Mirza, and Jason Kang, featured “social entrepreneurs by sector to highlight the impact of their work and to discuss the challenges and opportunities they have encountered along the way.”

Beginning with their social and cultural impact (which won them a SXSW Pitch Competition award in 2019), Supportiv has become a leader in the movement tackling mental health as a key determinant of physical health, globally.

To ensure global health, we need globally accessible solutions for mental health struggles. Supportiv seeks to provide that solution.

The post Columbia Business School Panel on Entrepreneurship in Global Health Features Supportiv Co-Founder appeared first on Supportiv.

“These days, tempers are hot, tolerance is waning, and frustration levels are perilously high. And, with shutdowns starting up once again and money still tight for many people, traditional options like face-to-face psychotherapy aren’t happening,” author Jenny Heitz reflects.

Few schools are set to reopen in Fall, leaving parents and kids in the mutually inadequate no-man’s land of distance learning. What are parents to do?

She continues: “Enter Supportiv, a peer support network that gives people the safe, anonymous support they need.”

“Whether you’re stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, angry at your spouse, or questioning why you even had kids, there are others among Supportiv’s 500,000+ users who understand.”

The article in Parentology lays out what needs Supportiv can meet for parents, exactly how it works, and all the safeguards in place to make these anonymous chats genuinely helpful.

“There are no static topics or drop-down menus. Users type their struggles in an unstructured format and our AI takes care of the rest,” Supportiv Co-Founder Pouria Mojabi shares with Parentology. He goes on to detail Supportiv’s anonymous and troll-free model, and the impact Supportiv’s 24/7 chats can have in the lives of parents.

Whether you’re stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, angry at your spouse, or questioning why you even had kids, there are others among Supportiv’s 500,000+ users who understand. Supportiv provides a unique “mixture of technology and human support” which “is key to avoiding the pitfalls of online communication.”

As mentioned in the full article, Supportiv is so sure parents will benefit from the extra support, that they’re offering an entire month of service for free. Enter the code PARENTOLOGY at https://staging-supportivcom.kinsta.cloud/code, and rest assured you’ll always have the emotional support you need, when you need it.

The post Parentology Directs Readers To Supportiv: An On-Demand Helping Hand appeared first on Supportiv.

With Covid-19 and the racial injustice brought into the light by the Black Lives Matter movement, the world has changed, and there’s no going back. In confronting our discomfort during 2020, we have a choice between coping or healing.

While coping mechanisms help us temporarily manage emotional struggles, healing is the approach we should strive for. Lasting wellbeing and emotional strength requires a continued effort towards healing.

Healing may not be as simple as taking steps to cope, but the reward is worth it. What’s the actual difference between the two, and why should you care? Helena Plater-Zyberk, Supportiv Co-Founder and CEO, explains:

“Coping helps keep things from getting worse. When you cope, your underlying struggle is still there, and it feels like you’re just getting by. Healing addresses the issue head-on to actively make yourself feel better. When you heal, you are taking steps to change your situation or perspective and finding new ways to live, even if it takes longer overall.”

Supportiv’s fresh collection of inspiration and tips includes topics like boundaries, trauma, healthy relationships, and accepting the reality of your situation. The collection features the following titles and more, meant to guide and bolster you through the healing process:

• From Coping To Healing: Making The Transition
• Recover Your Sense Of Self In Order To Heal
• Healing From Injustice By Channeling Righteous Anger
• How To Know Your Boundaries And Assert Them Without Guilt
• It’s Hard To Heal While Swimming In Self Blame
• Does My Insurance Cover Mental Health? Help For You Or A Friend
• Suffering: Why Do We Feel Emotional Pain?
• NC: How To Go No Contact Without Guilt
• “I’m Baby.” Own The Mood To Stop Helplessness
• After Trauma: Post Traumatic Growth And Liminal Space

Supportiv Co-Founder Pouria Mojabi emphasizes why someone would want to heal, when coping can feel easier:

“Trauma, stress, and toxic relationships are examples of struggles where coping may inadvertently prevent healing. Getting through these kinds of struggles is daunting yet possible through continued effort, and with ongoing support.”

Check out the entire collection here, and read the full press release here.

We’re here for anyone who needs to talk–24/7, immediately, and anonymously. Click Chat Now to vent productively, feel understood, and gain clarity in these discombobulating times.

The post Transition From Coping To Healing With New Tips From Supportiv appeared first on Supportiv.

COVID-19 has thrown the world into tumult, perhaps for good, leaving insurers scrambling to prevent crisis across covered populations. Likewise, the mental health impact of the pandemic is leading to higher utilization of mental health services — and insurers would do well to address this “stress and disruption” in a preventative manner:

“Moving from an office to a work-from-home environment can be disruptive and stressful. Provide collaboration tools to help replace day-to-day interactions, as well as tools for dealing with stress and disruption . . . Some companies have begun sending periodic surveys to employees to gauge mental health. Others have connected their teams with online support tools like Supportiv and Lyra Health.”

Find the full article here, and to learn more about Supportiv’s enterprise options, see our pricing page, here.

The post How Can Insurers Inspire Trust and Connect With Customers? Salesforce Says: Supportiv appeared first on Supportiv.

As a nonprofit that has existed for over 100 years, Mental Health America is “dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and promoting the overall mental health of all Americans.”

Supportiv is honored to be considered a tool to help further this mission.

Mental Health America (or MHA) specializes in providing information, screening, and resources to those going through depression, anxiety, stress, and more serious mental and emotional struggles. After visitors take a screening, MHA recommends resources, including a breakdown on what users say about the platform, cost, and more.

Supportiv’s page on Mental Health America can be found here.

The post Mental Health America Features Supportiv As Vetted Resource appeared first on Supportiv.

The article discusses Supportiv’s sharp increase in user numbers after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, illustrating how many more people are seeking mental wellbeing support than ever before. The author points out how:

“For many essential workers, like retail workers for example, their jobs require that they work long shifts, for not much pay, around many customers—and usually while working on your feet. Under normal circumstances, these jobs are stressful. Given the current pandemic and health crisis, these jobs are exceptionally stressful.”

Essential workers are under exceptional stress, often without the time or means to seek support and care. Their struggles may be more likely to spiral into crisis — a result which may be avoided by using accessible, on-demand tech for mental wellness like Supportiv.

The full article can be found here for more!

The post OHS Online Covers Supportiv’s Essential Worker Outreach appeared first on Supportiv.