AI virtual coach Driven partners to build resilience in first responders

Sydney-based resilience startup https://www.hellodriven.com/ announces a partnership with FirstWatch to improve the mental health of first responders such as paramedics, firefighters, crisis call centre staff and police officers.

“First responders are extraordinarily caring people with extensive practical training to do their work, yet we find that little training is provided around the mental impact from the challenges they face,” says Jurie Rossouw, CEO and co-founder of Driven.

“To help responders prepare for these challenges through a preventative approach, Driven measures and builds resilience proactively through personalised daily resilience training activities.”

Covering over 130 million Americans, clients of FirstWatch include 9-1-1 dispatch centres, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and police, among others. Interest in the initiative come from a fast-growing problem in responder mental health. Firefighters alone are 10 times more likely to consider or attempt suicide, with more dying from suicide than in the line of duty.

Resilience is increasingly being understood as a way to overcome and even protect against depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The partnership hopes to provide both a proactive and reactive way to improve mental health in this specialised industry.

Driven’s track record includes use in clinical practice by a hundreds of psychologists, with business looking to improve staff wellness, and in schools to increase student resilience.

“Stress, PTSD, and suicides in the emergency services workforce are some of the challenging issues our customers deal with. Our collaboration with Driven allows us to bring a tangible, neuroscience-based, affordable solution to our EMS, Fire, and Law Enforcement colleagues for the first time ever,” says Todd Stout, President of FirstWatch.

While the virtual coach was launched in 2017, Driven took an unusual approach to first publish peer-reviewed research in 2016 on the neuroscience and psychological components of the program. This scientific validation proved to be helpful to gain revenue early from psychologists and therapists to bootstrap the company as the service evolved.

Since then, Driven has initiated more than 20 new research projects with various universities worldwide, investigating different aspects of resilience using its neuroscience-based approach that covers both mental and physical aspects of resilience.

“What makes Driven different is that we combine scientifically validated psychometric assessments with personalised chatbot-style daily training. Our research results show that this approach motivates people to stick with it, which is what really builds deep resilience,” adds Rossouw.

Growing quickly, Driven now has 10 staff in their Sydney office. Meanwhile, partnerships provide a way to speed up access to new markets and address the needs of specific industries, such as FirstWatch and their broad first responder client base.

“What’s really valuable about a partnership with FirstWatch is their amazing relationship with their clients. Together we are creating tailored content that speaks to the specific challenges of first responders, helping us connect with people in a more meaningful way,” he said.

Adding to the clinical and enterprise focus, Driven will launch an Android and iOS app next to open the resilience platform for consumer access.

“Resilience is such a universally important skill – we all need it. It has huge preventative power, meaning in the long term it can really help to improve mental health on a global scale.”

For more information visit https://www.hellodriven.com/

Hello Driven Pty Ltd
11-31 York Street
2000 Sydney
https://www.hellodriven.com/

Driven is transforming preventative healthcare through an innovative approach to scientifically enhance the resilience of people and communities.

We are challenging the status quo of reactive healthcare. The current reactive approach has caused the cost of care to spiral out of control with no solution in sight. 300 million people struggling with depression, 260 million with anxiety, $16 trillion in mental health expenditure by 2030…

Our vision to reverse this trend is a virtual coach in the pocket of every person - this is Driven. Driven helps people proactively build mental and physical resilience, creating a new pathway for innovative preventative health.

Driven uses predictive risk assessments to determine what help people need, followed by automated AI-driven personalised coaching to help people get on top of life. The AI system also provides in-the-moment help for people struggling with specific issues, providing a judgement-free zone to work through difficult situations.

We've published ground-breaking peer-reviewed research, establishing the first holistic resilience model that incorporates both mental and physical aspects linked together through neuroscience. Because of this scientific innovation, over 20 universities around the world now use our model to better understand human resilience in different contexts, such as major depression, anxiety, trauma, and more.

Psychologists and coaches worldwide use our platform to better understand and enhance client resilience. We help organisations better understand the mental and physical health needs of their people. We also work with school and uni students, teachers, top athletes, emergency workers, police, and many more. Our technology enables preventative healthcare in a scalable way.

Driven is reshaping the landscape of preventative healthcare. Through our proactive approach, Driven is making a measurable impact on the quality of life of people around the world.

This release was published on openPR.