The state of mental health in Asia has been troubling for many years. Key factors such as low mental health literacy and lack of human and financial resources are the main causes for people to neglect seeking help when they need it most.
Over the last few years, startups and various other companies have identified this space as a high potential area for growth. Due to the pandemic, the growth of this space has accelerated exponentially.
Currently, four to 20 per cent of adults in the Asia Pacific are experiencing diagnosable mental illnesses, with only around one in 10 seeking help. However, changes on the government and cultural levels are not quite as speedy as one would hope. Instead, we are seeing the changing situation being led by other key players like global corporations and startups in the space instead.
Understanding mental health in Asia
The World Health Organisation (WHO) found in 2001 that many mental health challenges stem from governments not implementing mental health programmes or allocating sufficient resources to treating mental illnesses.
This has created a landscape in which people usually face three key challenges regarding mental health issues.
- The stigma around mental health makes them reluctant to seek help.
- The cost of treatment is not always covered by health insurance and is not always affordable.
- Access or availability to the needed treatments or services is not always available locally.
The COVID-19 pandemic sent most countries into isolated lockdowns. The prolonged lockdowns have undoubtedly created today’s environment where a nuanced awareness of mental health issues and challenges has increased exponentially. This has led to a market where funding for the space has nearly doubled in the last 24 months.
Also Read: How to tackle employee mental health to build a resilient workforce
On the flip side, today’s landscape has also created a fortuity, where large companies and startups alike are more exposed and understanding of mental health issues, which serves an important purpose, to destigmatise mental health and unveil the mystery that is mental health solutions.
As a result, we are seeing three main trends emerging within Asia as the need to address the mental health of a nation becomes more important.
Mental health literacy is increasing
Many countries across Asia are trying to remove the stigma around mental health by raising mental health literacy within the country. This can be seen in examples of an increase in soft-power movements, encouraging dialogues about mental health in South Korea.
This is seen through the increased mental health topics being discussed on television shows and present within popular K-Dramas. In Singapore, the government has invested US$13 million into community efforts to raise awareness of mental health and improve the mental health literacy of the country.
A rise in mental health is assessed in companies through Employee Assessment Programmes (EAP)
Although not a fully resolved challenge, many labour legislations around Asia have started implementing a requirement for companies to have some sort of stress assessment or employee wellness assessment.
Countries like Japan have made this a part of the workplace requirements for companies of certain sizes, and other countries in the region have implemented or advised on a similar practice. This creates a space within the HR and Workplace Management sector for solutions as companies seek new tools to improve employees’ health.
An increase in solutions for mental health across the spectrum
As mental health literacy increases in Asia, understanding the spectrum of mental health needs is becoming prominent. The funding for current treatments in Asia, particularly in South Korea, sits at an institutional or hospital level.
The market is becoming more aware of opportunities in spaces for different mental health needs at earlier stages in the spectrum. This leads to a rise in solutions being offered to address all stages and methods, from self-maintenance to regular counselling and mental health care.
There is also a shift in some businesses turning to these new solutions as an addition, or even replacement, to their current EAP offerings.
How startups are impacting and changing the mental health space
Using South Korea as an example of the changing trends within Asia, there has been a history of the majority of the mental health funding going towards treating mental health illnesses in hospitals, which account for 68 per cent of all mental health facilities and institutions in South Korea. This has highlighted the need for mental health treatment and support at a community level rather than just at an institutional level.
Also Read: Singapore mental health startup Intellect raises US$10M to extend Series A round to US$20M
Over the last few years, South Korea has been seeing a steadily increasing number of startups and new solutions in the space of community-level mental health services, focusing on helping people gain understanding and access to mental health support easily and effectively.
Services such as Mind Cafe, which offers non-face-to-face counselling, have grown as users seek ways to handle their mental health during the pandemic. Furthermore, Trost has offered users mental wellness through services such as ASMR, mind management chatbots and meditation.
Through the increase in solutions like these, we can also see in Asia that the increase in startups has correlated with the increase in adoption as people prioritise mental health and mental wellness more through these mental health services.
Recently Singapore-grown startup, Intellect has been leading the innovation in the mental health space through their offerings to both users and corporates to help people gain access to an end-to-end solution for all items covering mental health, from cognitive-behavioural therapy techniques to also helping companies support their employees’ mental health through EAP-like programmes.
How Intellect is facing and changing the mental health market
Intellect, founded in 2019, has been growing rapidly within Asia, raising a total of US$20 million for their Series A led by HOF Capital and Tiger Global, and reaching three million users this year.
Intellect focuses on tailoring and localising mental health solutions to Asian markets, predominantly focusing on two key areas that they have identified as important problem statements within the mental health industry in Asia.
- People need more mental health support across the spectrum, not just at an institutional level. Intellect helps users build healthy mental habits through their app and supports users’ move from clinical support to proactive support. This gives end-users the tools to effectively navigate their own mental health needs at all stages.
- Helping customers and the public learn more about mental health. Intellect aims to continue to support and celebrate the increase of public awareness of mental health and has been hosting complimentary events for the public, such as their Mental Health Festival Asia held in Singapore last year.
With these key missions as their focus, Intellect has built a mental health care platform that is palatable, accessible and tailored for the Asian population.
It currently serves over three million lives and covers 14 languages across 20+ countries. The team aims to not only create a self-care app or a marketplace for therapists but also focus on connecting the dots at all levels of mental health support that anyone may need.
To reach this goal, Intellect has been working to impact the Asian market at multiple levels and is currently navigating market entry into key markets to support this.
They have spent the last two months working closely with the Rainmaking Expand team through their South Korea programme in order to deep dive into how the South Korean market approaches mental health, with their learnings focusing on the best way to enter the market and support the people within it.
How Intellect is expanding into new markets
CEO and Co-Founder Theodoric Chew has highlighted that the most important element for them when entering new markets is understanding the country, market and cultural nuances deeply.
Also Read: YC-backed mental health startup Intellect bags US$10M Series A
They have spent their time over the last couple of months focusing on identifying the current mental health structures, the key players in the space, and the key people they need to work with to successfully make their services available to the people of South Korea.
Chew attributes success in new markets to determined by localisation. Intellect has focused within Asia on hiring local, native language-speaking teams to handle the creation and localisation of the content. It is more important to implement the local, cultural context and nuances within the mental health solutions they provide and not simply translate content from other markets.
Since the company’s founding, Intellect has focused on providing people with knowledge, awareness and support. Since mental health is a key area that needs to be addressed for many markets in Asia, it has also been a challenge to make it clear to people where they can find the support they need for the challenges they face.
Intellect hopes to bridge this gap by supplying people, both as individual users or as part of a corporate/organisation, with the right tools and connections to find the support and guidance they need. Ultimately, Intellect wants to build these capabilities to empower people across all of APAC to manage their mental health.
Why innovation can help solve bigger problems
The cultural shift within the mental health space in Asia is heartening. The rise of regionalised startups, like Intellect, continues to transform millions of lives across Asia. Intellect’s proactive localised approach towards solving key challenges in mental health has created a new mental healthcare system for workforces and individuals.
Intellect is leading the changes in the mental health space through its proactive approach to the key challenges that the industry faces, as well as helping each individual market gain access to fully localised support and tools to empower their populations.
This is leading to evolution through innovation for the different markets as both governments and corporates are turning to these new solutions and approaches to challenge the larger problems within their markets.
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