Hello everyone!!!
My name is Richard and the story of my life is often stitched together with surprising and unanticipated events.
I am what is known today as a neurodivergent individual. And that is only the beginning. Together with my family, we have moved through a life that would lend itself as a compelling narrative to a literary optioning agent. My daughter has been struggling with the symptoms of borderline personality disorder. My youngest son is closest to the neurodivergent children we raise and educate in our household. Yet, I celebrate their individuality.
These experiences gave me a profound passion for mental health and the understanding of people who have these maladies. Twenty years ago, I myself endured a very bad mental health period and wrestled with alcoholism. It was an excruciating time, but one that pushed me, in its aftermath, toward a deeper understanding, toward a way of comprehending what a poor state of mental well-being is like. My bad experience led me to seek out good knowledge, in the hope that I might understand what makes some brains go haywire. And I sought and found the power of mental healing.
These days, I am all about giving power to others through education. This was also the driving force for pursing an MSc in psychology. I think of knowledge as a tool of incredible potential, one that is not only capable of fostering a sense of understanding and acceptance but also of directing society toward a brighter, more inclusive future. Whether I am working directly in the community, traveling across the country to conferences, or just sitting down to write a Facebook post about something that happened to me that day, for me it always comes back to this: How can I use my knowledge to help make this world a better place?
The obstacles I have encountered and the knowledge I have gained have profoundly affected me in a way that is hard to quantify but abundantly clear to me. I am, and have been for some time now, someone who passionately stands as a mental health advocate. The experiences I have gone through have also left me with a tenacious curiosity that drives me to never stop learning. And perhaps most importantly, I am a father; a father who has had to learn to appreciate the wondrous perplexities that come with raising a child(children) whose brain doesn't work in the same way as most others.
I am creating an innovative online format that will change the nature of mental health support and education. This platform will allow for the kind of dynamism and personalisation that is the digital world’s signature and that the mental health sector desperately needs. The crisis is monumental. Mental health issues affect an incalculable number of individuals across the globe and paralyse their lives and the lives of their loved ones. All too often, those mental health crises lead to death. Even without considering those worst-case scenarios, the platforms that exist today fall short in terms of care and thoroughness, not to mention the diversity needed to serve all the possible beneficiaries.
I aim for my project to reduce the stigma around mental health issues. By doing so, the platform I am developing will bridge a gap in our health care ecosystems by offering a centralised hub for what might be described as a set of personalised services. It's a bit like a virtual mental health clinic that offers an array of curated, evidence-based mental health content that I see as a hugely desirable extension of traditional mental health services. The figure below shows the range of services I plan to offer.
This platform offers an impressive investment opportunity. Supporting it means not just putting your money behind a crucial cause but also stepping with assurance into a burgeoning space poised to make an enormous impact both socially and financially. Innovators in this mental health tech sector expect to see it grow into a multibillion-dollar industry within just a few years, driven by the ever-mounting need for accessible, effective solutions. Our platform will raise money in some very familiar ways. Users may pay subscription fees for premium content and services; businesses may form partnerships with us; and we may license some of what we learn and earn from our data to people who figure that’s worth paying for.
Join me in this mission to change the direction of mental health care. Invest in me, not just for any old reason but because mental health is near and dear to my heart. Countless individuals who struggle day to day—many you probably know—could benefit from the easy access to care my model provides. My business is something the world needs, and with words like yours backing me up, it can more quickly reach the far corners of society.