ShareWell wants to scale mental health support with its 10,000 support groups • TechCrunch

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A therapist can add an extra layer of grief to your wallet if you can find insurance and a therapist who accepts new clients, even when you’re trying to correct your own mental health wobble. sherwell We believe we reach somewhere between special interest forums and online communities, coaching and therapy, using a much more affordable peer support model. The idea is that people can offer support (but not advice) to each other, making it less of a burden for one person to deal with.

“I started ShareWell because peer support really helped me during what was probably the most difficult time of my life,” founder and CEO CeCe Cheng said in an interview with TechCrunch. “During the pandemic, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship. I didn’t want to talk to my friends about it.

Chen tried to put together a better solution for that. She is not only about combating her loneliness in her own experience, but also about using existing modalities to create tools for people to rely on each other. She points to other successful peer-based support her groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

A Sharewell session is in progress. Image credit: share well.

“I looked online and was shocked to find nothing. We found broken links, lack of information, and frustration,” he says. Often there was a zoom link that joined at a certain time and wanted other people to show up. Other times there were as many as 20. Didn’t feel very safe. I’ve found a few Reddit forums and Facebook groups, but it’s pretty shocking that there’s no better place in this day and age. ”

People need all the help they can get. The pandemic has exacerbated an already severe mental health crisis, 25% increase in depression and anxiety nationwide Meanwhile, 77% of Americans live in counties where access to mental health care is difficult. The company wants to provide an effective, affordable and accessible alternative with live human support.

ShareWell told TechCrunch that it has raised $1.3 million in a pre-seed round. Kyle Vogt, co-founder of Twitch and co-founder and CEO of Cruise. Russell Simmons, former CTO and co-founder of Yelp. Margo Georgiadis is the former CEO of Ancestry.com. Charlie Cheever, former CTO and co-founder of Quora. Rob Hayes, Uber’s first investor. and Quiet Capital.

This is an impressive line-up of investors and speaks to Cheng’s deep roots in Silicon Valley. Before he left his career as an investor to found this company, She was at FirstRound Capital and Makers Fund.

Personally, I’m skeptical of turning to the internet for help or advice given the general quality of information available online, but Cheng says the company thinks thoroughly about safety. We guarantee that

“We built a video and community platform with unique safety features. Video sessions include: rule of 3, that is, all virtual sessions require a host and at least two attendees to start the session. If someone drops out and he’s down to three people, everyone moves to the waiting room,” says Cheng. “This site prohibits one-on-one communication anywhere, which itself limits cases of abuse. There are also site-wide blocks. Block someone if you feel uncomfortable. That way you’ll never be in a session with that person again, you won’t see their forum posts, they’re completely blocked, and there’s also reporting features and flags everywhere There are features: There is also a host and session rating feature Bad actors are flagged, blocked and reported If it happens more than once the team intervenes The community We didn’t really have to do that because we regulate it.”

The company’s special source is its way of thinking about the peer group system and the rules that go along with it. The point is, don’t give advice to others during the call, only share your experience.

“We define peer support as sharing experiences, not advice. This is one of the most important rules in our Community Guidelines. Here we are: We can relate what we learn from personal or professional experience, but it’s against the rules to give advice or make a diagnosis,” Cheng says. , she says no one at ShareWell is actively monitoring ongoing sessions. “On the platform, after she attends one session, anyone can create and host peer support her session. There are many host training materials to support the host.”

The company told me that hosts are not allowed to encourage someone to seek help from a therapist or other professional if someone is clearly distressed and in need of professional help.

“right now [asking someone to seek professional help] It’s frowned upon because it crosses the line of giving advice, but if you see someone who feels they need therapy, they’ll probably ask you about how the therapy actually helped them get over certain things. “In the future, I think we’ll be able to introduce people to modalities beyond peer support. We already know people are looking for coaching, therapy, etc. We see peer support as the home of our community, and from there we connect people to resources outside of ShareWell.”