For many, addressing mental health challenges means unhelpful things like reading cheesy inspirational quotes or sitting on a couch to talk it out to a therapist.
Johnny Crowder, who has been managing his mental health since he was 15, knows it goes beyond that; but many of the people he met at metal shows were not convinced.
"I'm a musician and met so many people who would never see a therapist," he said. "If you look out and see 100 kids at the show, you think 80% are experiencing mental and emotional crisis. The resistance was wide scale. It's not just me that needs something casual, conversational and informative."
After attending the University of Central Florida to study psychology, he created an in-person support group, which turned into a virtual support group. But after a majority of the group attendees opted in to the SMS option, he pivoted to make a texting service to help with mental health.
"I think a lot of places try to focus on brightening your day — which, if we can do that, cool — but it's not what we're interested in," he said. "It's more long term behavior change. This is like brain surgery without the scalpel."
Cope Notes is Tampa-based startup that offers an SMS messaging system which allows for those without Internet, smart phones or data plans to access the text messages, making it globally accessible. While each text is randomized for the user (they give almost no identifying information) the messages are written by peers who have experience with mental health challenges. His service is the first of its kind, which tackles mental health in a preventative way.
That tactic caught the eye of the University of South Florida and the Insurance Office of America. Both entities reached out to Crowder to take advantage of his enterprise offering, which offers organizations the service for $7.99 a month per user.
"It’s astounding how many people elect to not use it because of social stigma," he said. "We think 'Even if it's eight bucks a month, if I'm spending that on my mental health what does that say about me?' When we partner with school and organizations, the barrier to entry is lifted. Instead of thinking 'What's wrong with me?' It's 'Well, it's free at work, why not try it?'"
USF researchers are also working with Cope Notes to learn more about preventative mental health measures.
"They said all our trends and models show mental health treatment is moving toward the preventative end and there is no interventional treatment in mental health right now," Crowder, who was approached after giving a guest lectures at the university, said.
While he is waiting to see if he will pursue funding in 2020, he plans to continue to build both the individual and enterprise platforms. Users can get two weeks free during the month of January here.
"Not to sound morbid, but I definitely didn’t think I would live this long," Crowder said of his past mental health challenges. "I wish I cold go back in time to tell myself 'You will be better and running a mental health business full time.' I think it's one of those things that happens in movies: I'm very lucky — even though running a startup is the crazies thing I've ever done with the risk and pressure, but you only get one life."
