Virtual Mood and Anxiety Management Vendors: Content
Addressing mental health challenges
Access to mental health services is challenging, due to insufficient resources, geography, and stigma. Wait lists for treatment are lengthy. Effective and cost-efficient virtual solutions are increasingly a viable option to address the need to improve the health and mental health well-being of Ontarians.
The four vendors on OTN’s vendor of record arrangement are Morneau Shepell, MindBeacon, TruReach, and Togetherall. Benefits of leveraging these tools include:
Access: Virtual solutions enhance timely access to supports for patients on wait lists for treatment, or those who face geographic barriers to care, or those who simply prefer the option of anonymous online support
Support: Virtual resources for individuals with mild to moderate symptoms help improve their ability to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression
Empowerment: Virtual solutions enhance people’s abilities to manage and gain control of their mental health issues
Relief: The end result is improved productivity and quality of life for both individuals and their families
Value of virtual tools
There is strong evidence that online mental health therapies work. A recent pilot project undertaken by OTN of a virtual solution for mild to moderate anxiety and depression showed improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms. Virtual tools also address the Mental Health Strategy for Canada recommendation to ‘use technology to foster collaboration, increase access to services, and engage people in managing their mental health problems and illnesses.’
Select a vendor to learn more about solutions
AbilitiCBT™ by Morneau Shepell is a leading online iCBT program. iCBT is Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). CBT is the most effective and commonly used therapy for a wide range of mental health concerns.
CBT is about the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. Those thoughts, emotions, and behaviours connect to our moods, our physical experiences, and events in our lives. Being aware of how negative thoughts about an event or experience might be affecting how we act, or perceive a situation, can change our emotional, behavioural, and physical responses to it.
AbilitiCBT combines a personalized therapist-guided program with online tools and exercises to bring CBT to life whenever and wherever it’s needed.
BEACON™ is developed and operated by the MindBeacon Group of companies, including MindBeacon Software, MindBeacon Health, and CBT Associates. MindBeacon leads innovation that allows people and populations to access effective mental health care in ways that overcome barriers to care.
Since 2002, MindBeacon has been a leading provider of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and other evidence-based therapies through a network of clinics across the Greater Toronto Area. BEACON was first introduced in 2016 as an in-clinic innovation to enhance delivery and measurement of CBT. BEACON launched in 2017 as a fully digital experience providing treatment through digitally delivered CBT with the one-on-one support of a dedicated therapist all along the way.
BEACON has been developed to achieve optimal symptom reduction for mild to moderately severe symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders. Its features include:
- comprehensive online assessment that captures detailed insights required to personalize each patient care path
- optional psychological diagnosis by a clinical psychologist
- condition-specific evidence-based CBT protocols for depression, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic, and post-traumatic stress disorder
- Dedicated therapist-guided therapy, and continuous monitoring and therapy adjustment based on progress
- Continuous outcome measurement using validated psychometric scales that facilitate optimal symptom reduction
- Fully digital experience that allows for any time, anywhere engagement with therapy
TruReach (TruReach Health) is a built-in-Ontario self-help platform that helps users overcome mild to moderate depression and anxiety. TruReach achieves this by providing users with evidence-based lessons, digital, exercises, symptom tracking, and peer support.
The tool has been developed based on the extensive and growing body of evidence for the effectiveness of online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The majority of TruReach’s content is CBT-based, though content derived from other evidence-based modalities – such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy – help TruReach appeal to a broader range of symptoms and users.
In addition to the self-help content that TruReach provides the end user, TruReach provides organizations and their administrators with advanced data and analytics.
Togetherall is a 24/7 online peer support and self-management tool for youth aged 16+ and adults experiencing symptoms of mild to moderate depression and anxiety.
Users can talk anonymously with other members of the community who can relate to their feelings. Togetherall is staffed by trained Wall Guides who make sure that the community is safe and supportive. Users also have access to online guided support courses on topics such as depression, anxiety, weight management, and smoking cessation. For those looking for ways to express themselves through art therapy, Togetherall provides an opportunity to display feelings using images, drawings, and words to make bricks that are posted to the Wall.
Since its inception in 2007, Togetherall, which originates in the United Kingdom, has been used by more than 60,000 people. It was launched as a pilot in Ontario at three healthcare facilities; research involving 700+ patients indicated a decrease in reported depression and increase in perceived mental health recovery.
Benefits of Innovative Procurement
OTN uses a rigorous process to identify and qualify transformative virtual care solutions by evaluating clinical and business outcomes, privacy, security, and technical requirements.
An innovative procurement approach is applied to these provincial Vendor of Record arrangements, each of which has been supported by all 14 of Ontario’s Local Health Integration Networks and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
The result is the opportunity to acquire effective and scalable virtual care offerings that address a wide range of health care needs and priorities. Health care organizations can leverage a streamlined, efficient, cost-effective and compliant procurement process to easily acquire validated solutions at the best price through OTN’s status as a Broader Public Sector institution.
For more details about the innovative procurement and qualification process visit our Health Care Solution Provider space.
