Joyable Inc. Executive Summary

Joyable Inc. has raised over $8 million in Series. A venture funding to give people diagnosed with mental health issues such as social anxiety a new therapeutic option. San Francisco Company’s app gives users a series of interactive cognitive behavior therapy exercises. They can complete when they have time. This exercise can help them overcome social anxiety. There are many outcomes in doing this exercise, for example: going on a date or even speaking up at work. Going to see a therapist in person is often difficult for people who need mental health help, especially if what ails them is social anxiety. Cognitive behavior therapy sessions can be costly, not covered by insurance and hard to schedule. One third of the U.S population lives in a mental-health-help shortage area, a kind of therapy desert, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Joyable’s competition includes traditional therapy options as well as other mental health apps and marketplaces such as Talkspace or Teladoc.
Joyable matches its users with “peer coaches, “not licensed therapists, who give encouragement and remind users to keep working toward their goals and not to abandon their therapy efforts. Joyable Chief Executive Pete Shalek said the startup would soon release native mobile apps that users can access when they aren’t connected with Wi-Fi, such as when they are commuting. The company will now use the money for research and development, and new hires to address multiple mental-health problems in the future. People rarely have social anxiety alone. So the goal is that they are looking at how to help people with depression, and other mental health issues that have “co-morbidity” with social
anxiety. Even though theses Ceo are not social workers, they sure play a role as one. They want to help others and give back to other social anxiety and other mental illness. This article represents a little of chapter 6, SW in Mental Health. There are still no cure for mental illness but it’s the thought that counts. This chapter trust that the spirit of openness to new knowledge that has pervaded the social work profession since its inception will keep social workers in the future alert to new learning and more efficient, effective treatment interventions. Firm grounding in professional values will also guide social workers of the future in their ethical, empowering mental health practice. (pg. 195) I connected this with the article because they are in the process of creating a way to help people with social anxiety, which the social worker can definitely use. They can become the peer coach to other people. This would be a great opportunity for the Social Workers. Social Workers puts their clients first and this new app can allow them to help others out there in the world, the ones they can’t reach in person.