Therapists toolkit to deliver vital services online
THE CLIENT
Our client is a start-up business, developed out of a strong belief that getting the right mental health support doesn’t have to be complicated or dependent upon where you live. They firmly believe technology can bring people together and empower them to take control of their mental health and wellbeing.
CLIENT NEED
A toolkit to help therapists continue to deliver vital services online during COVID-19 and beyond
The journey Paranimo (Latin for “matching minds”) has been on from idea to implementation is one that Amdaris is proud to have been a part of. The original idea came in 2018 when co-founder Matthew Vamplew had a personal experience of accessing mental health support both through the NHS and privately, giving him an insight into the challenges people face when looking for help. Working as an innovation manager also meant Matthew knew how to explore an idea and understand its commercial potential.
Both clients and therapists have several challenges when relying on traditional directories as a sourcing tool. For the client, they have so much choice and selecting the right therapist is very personal given everyone’s needs are unique. Yet therapists often present themselves showing long lists of expertise, and when you come to compare therapists with similar expertise, it’s hard to know who’s the right fit for you. Compounded by the fact access can often be restricted based on location these challenges simply add more stress to the process.
For the therapist, their focus is on helping the client, and therefore a platform for delivering remote mental health therapy would be a benefit for several reasons:
- grow their therapy practice by letting clients match to them you from anywhere in the UK – saving on marketing costs
- reduce the administrative burden associated with managing a therapy practice
- provide a secure online platform for video
- ensure GDPR compliance for both patients and prospective patients
- ability to focus on the people they can help the most.
Matthew approached Daniel Condliffe in early 2019 and together they founded Paranimo. They began by developing a test prototype for a platform to support both clients and therapists to find each other. At this point Dan, a Neuroscience PHD academic, taught himself coding and began working full-time on a prototype that was tested with therapists. At the time, Matthew was working on the project outside of his full-time day job.
Step forward to 2020 when Paranimo was introduced to Amdaris. Amdaris featured on the application for an Innovate UK grant to move this idea from prototype into development, and Paranimo was awarded a circa £50K investment from Innovate UK as part of the Covid-19 grant fund for “cutting edge” startups.
The funding enabled the business to turn a corner as the co-founders were now in a position to use this investment to turn their prototype into reality. Phase one of the project to deliver a Therapist Toolkit was launched.
