Greg S- I wish we had 400B at our fingertips because I can only imagine what impact we could have. In all honesty, our model is very low-tech. There are no apps or fancy gadgets. We also don’t use prescription medicine (which may be why a pharma company has yet to snap us up!) Finally, the women we treat mostly live on less than $2 a day, so they aren’t in an income bracket that many investors might want as consumers. While apps, tech, and pharmaceutical partnerships receive considerable funds, mental health in low and middle-income countries trying to help with poverty reduction is not heavily funded. Yearly global costs from mental, neurological, and substance use disorders are estimated at between $2.5 and $8.5 trillion dollars a year. That figure is projected to nearly double by 2030. Mental health is still frequently overlooked in health budgets. Most African governments devote less than 1% of their budgets to mental health services.
You raise a good point, though, to which we have given a little thought. Is there space to look at our model and make it self-sustainable and profitable? We would never consider this with our current clients, but is there room to have a for-profit arm that funds the non-profit, or should we consider a franchise model? We constantly push ourselves beyond what is comfortable, and we’ve had some early discussions. While I have no answers, I wanted to flag that we had considered new and different ways to fund our work.
I guess if I was in your position I’d consider running a pilot of the service (using as-similar-a-method-as-possible) in a demographic that is seen as desirable to the health industrial complex (New York or California or something). Perhaps I’d also talk to an intellectual property lawyer and see if there are any elements of your method that can be subject to protections (patents, copyright material or whatever).
If it’s so impactful and cost-effective it might be immediately profitable if offered to other demographics (including because market-provided mental health services seem hugely expensive in many western countries—it’s possible that this model could undercut the market dramatically).
Greg S- I wish we had 400B at our fingertips because I can only imagine what impact we could have. In all honesty, our model is very low-tech. There are no apps or fancy gadgets. We also don’t use prescription medicine (which may be why a pharma company has yet to snap us up!) Finally, the women we treat mostly live on less than $2 a day, so they aren’t in an income bracket that many investors might want as consumers. While apps, tech, and pharmaceutical partnerships receive considerable funds, mental health in low and middle-income countries trying to help with poverty reduction is not heavily funded. Yearly global costs from mental, neurological, and substance use disorders are estimated at between $2.5 and $8.5 trillion dollars a year. That figure is projected to nearly double by 2030. Mental health is still frequently overlooked in health budgets. Most African governments devote less than 1% of their budgets to mental health services.
You raise a good point, though, to which we have given a little thought. Is there space to look at our model and make it self-sustainable and profitable? We would never consider this with our current clients, but is there room to have a for-profit arm that funds the non-profit, or should we consider a franchise model? We constantly push ourselves beyond what is comfortable, and we’ve had some early discussions. While I have no answers, I wanted to flag that we had considered new and different ways to fund our work.
Thanks for the reply Sean.
I guess if I was in your position I’d consider running a pilot of the service (using as-similar-a-method-as-possible) in a demographic that is seen as desirable to the health industrial complex (New York or California or something). Perhaps I’d also talk to an intellectual property lawyer and see if there are any elements of your method that can be subject to protections (patents, copyright material or whatever).
If it’s so impactful and cost-effective it might be immediately profitable if offered to other demographics (including because market-provided mental health services seem hugely expensive in many western countries—it’s possible that this model could undercut the market dramatically).