Better Health Apps Helps Everyone
Why so many mental health apps are being looked at more thoroughly.
Need to do a thing? There is an app for that.
It’s a saying that was uttered early on when apps first came onto the scene years ago. That surge of apps being created and hosted on various app stores continues to this day with more being created.
Some will serve similar functions to the hundreds or thousands of others.
Others are more unique like TheSukha, a productivity app that continues to offer its customers new features to boost productivity beyond a pomodoro timer, music, and group chat.
But the more apps are continued to push the more sinister and dark the industry can become. When apps were first created, we weren’t thinking they would be the source of ineffectiveness or harm to other people.
That has certainly been the case when it comes to a variety of mental health apps.
For sure, it’s difficult for a variety of reasons to seek out a therapist or someone to help you with mental health. With the push from a variety of people to be more open about one’s mental health, people have been following suit with that.
But the issue has long been the supply of good solutions to address these problems in the first place. Apps have long filled this gap and they promise something simple: confidential treatment and assistance with one’s mental health.
To their credit, apps have been living up to that expectation to some extent. Looking at the recent annual NHS talking therapy services report,1.76 million people were referred for treatment. Meanwhile 1.22 million began working with a real therapist.
Those apps helped in those circumstances.
But this is undercut by the fact these companies are in for perpetually higher profits. They can’t just settle with offering incredibly helpful resources. No.
They have to sell data too. That is what BetterHelp has done and likely still will do even after getting slapped a $7.8m fine by the FTC for lying to customers and selling their data to advertisers.
Unfortunately, situations like these are not done in isolation. There is more research that suggests privacy violations are pretty common among mental health apps. From mood tracks, to mental fitness coaches, chatbots, and virtual therapy services, these crucial services that give access to assistance are coming at a steeper cost with longer term repercussions.
Just like Facebook sold data to settle Zuck’s personal affairs (and genocide), several top mental health platforms have monetised on people’s private mental health struggles.
And with the industry continuing to grow, several things need to change about the industry that so many people deem helpful.
Regulations Keep People Safer
The obvious is of course tighter regulations on this industry and to regulations credit, there is some decent ones in place right now. The only issue is they are easy to get out of.
For example, the US has the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This protects communications between a doctor and patient. This is helpful, but it’s easy to work around this by say having a conversation with a mental health coach.
A conversation with a licensed psychologist is protected, but you don’t know if that person is one until you ask them.
Combined with a shortage of psychologists in general, it makes sense that many apps will be using mental health coaches or any trained coach to stand in for these circumstances. The COVID pandemic also encouraged people overall to be using these mental health apps in the first place too.
This loophole also applies to apps that don’t even have you talking to a person as well. An app that you use to help with OCD or eating disorders? That’s data that the app can just freely sell to anyone, even if you don’t want it to.
All in all, better health for everyone begins with better regulations. The goal with regulation isn’t about stifling creativity or companies to be turning a profit, but ensuring everyone is benefiting from the exchange.
It’s, in a way, upholding promises that each party makes to one another. The person pays the money to the mental health app. The mental health app delivers effective and helpful resources and treatment to said person. Everyone wins.
Prioritizing Care Benefits Everyone
One of the business practices that always makes me scratch my head is the constant drive for profitability. I understand it’s a late stage capitalism thing, but in my mind there are two options.
There is the exploitation side of things that we’ve all seen time and time again. And the other side is about being so effective people will vote with their dollars to keep that company afloat.
Now the latter is tougher to do. You have to think outside of the box. You’ll need to have a great team to help put things together. You’ll need to do testing. You’ll need to put in a lot of work to add in one or two new features.
But I would argue that that initial investment would be better than going down the exploitation route. In my mind BetterHealth could’ve saved millions if they lived up to their name and put more work on the app itself rather than selling data. They probably could’ve gotten more people using the app too.
My point is, focusing on delivering steady increments of value retains people more than these quick money scheme exploitation stuff companies do all the time. And focusing on the latter degrades the effectiveness of the apps themselves.
One of the problems with a bevy of options to pick from is what app is the best to be using. While there are plenty of lists that tout some of the most effective ones, the question is are they actually effective at what they’re supposed to do?
In many pilot studies, apps are pitted against tests that set the bar so low the results are meaningless. One example is a 2022 trial where an app offering cognitive behavioural therapy for schizophrenia was compared to a stopwatch.
It’s not out of the ordinary for these apps that tout their effectiveness had trials against such effective techniques like looking at a wall or being put on a waitlist. When the bar is set to absolutely nothing, even a default app on your phone could be considered a mental health app.
Much like the self-help industry, mental health treatment needs an update. Between AI encouraging someone to commit suicide, to these other particular issues mentioned above, the industry needs to change desperately.
Just like ourselves, we need to continue to grow, change, and adapt to the times. The only issue is that process is often a slow process. The pandemic sped up the process of mental health app developments and unfortunately many apps prioritized being created and safety and privacy were an afterthought.
There is no doubt in my mind that these apps could be effective and that some of the people behind them do want to help out their customer base. But due to a variety of circumstances and our penchant for exploiting opportunities, we’re left with mediocrity in something that should be taken more seriously.
Regulations can help in this process and make bad actors less frequent. But I’d say it could be better if those entering this industry genuinely cared about people and wanted to help.
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