19/11/2024
Movember is the month where for the last several years the spotlight has been on men’s health with International Men’s Day on 19 November.
The figures show that men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health problems. Men are less likely to talk things through and often downplay their problems. Men are about four times more likely to die by suicide than women.
Digital tools, especially apps, aimed at helping with mental health seem to be more appealing to men perhaps as they can be used easily and discretely. There are a very large number of apps available and we’ve looked at some of them. There are broad themes across tools. Some tools help users connect with therapists. Others provide some sort of therapy themselves. Another class of app tracks progress with managing a condition. While others help with remembering complex medication regimes.
Therapy tools
Happify has wide adoption in the US. It provides an interactive, gamified experience based on cognitive behavioural therapy and other techniques to help cope with stress. It connects users with qualified therapists. There are other apps that connect users to qualified therapists with different focuses. Talkspace is aimed at teenagers. Brightside Health focuses on one-to-one video sessions.
Betterhelp is an online therapy tool. It allows users to attend individual or group therapy sessions online with a choice of communication routes – video, text or a traditional sound-only call. Group therapy sessions are available to help with various problems such as anxiety and addiction.
Headspace is a meditation and mindfulness tool to help manage mental wellbeing including improving managing daily anxiety and stress, and relaxation before sleep as well as managing crisis events.
Better Stop Suicide helps people improve their mental health with a focus on suicide prevention. The app has a range of tools including a life-saving message to motivate the user to persevere, calming audio, a key phone contacts list and “feel better tasks” suggestions to improve mood.
Tools to deal with specific mental health conditions including trackers
Other tools focus more on specific mental health conditions. There seems to be an app that can help with any mental health condition. Here are some examples. Sanvello helps with depression with a guided journey to help build skills. NOCD is there to help with obsessive compulsive disorder. It links people with specialist qualified therapists and as well as one-to-one sessions provides other tools including videos and exercises as well as community space for peer support. eMoods helps with mood disorders and especially bipolar disorder. This is an app-class with tracker functionality. This particular app helps users track their emotional state, medication, and sleep amongst other things. The app then generates reports that can be shared with health professionals. PTSD coach is there for people who have or think that they may have posttraumatic stress disorder. It also has tracking functionality to help users track their symptoms as well as tools for support and to manage day-to-day stress and anxiety.
Help with medication regimes
Medisafe is an app for a yet further purpose – to help people manage their medication schedule. In addition to reminders to take medication, it can remind users to restock their medication and attend appointments.
Helpful links for men’s mental health:
This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
