A mental-care service provider has just opened its online platform to help people in need of mental therapy for problems like mental stress, depression, withdrawal and anxiety. The Big White Wall, otherwise known as ‘Talkabouts’, has been operational in the United Kingdom since 2007.
It is now being expanded into the United States. Its attraction is the finger-tips accessibility to everyone who needs a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker, whenever and wherever.
On The Big White Wall, the mental-health personnel are known as wall guides that the users can communicate with anytime, about anything, in a variety of systemic ways. It aims to shatter the obstacles of inaccessibility, bringing quick mental care when needed.
It provides a release for pent up emotions and feelings, giving a sense of one-on-one care without actual physical contact with the care provider. Talkabouts was officially endorsed by the British National Health Service, and services about 36,000 people there. In America, though, the platform can only be accessed through several health organizations, and not on a one-on-one basis.
Supriya Narang, chief medical officer at Mosaic Community Services, Baltimore has said that “those who find it most useful are those who have day-to-day variations in their moods and limited ability to cope” with the stress of daily life changes and monotony.
Mosaic, which subscribed to Big White Wall in 2014, has a clientele base of about 25,000 people, and they provide the service free of charge. Kaiser Permanente is also trying out the service, opening it to 125,000 clients. On Monday, Texas Scott and White, the local health plan will also open access to their 42,000 members, and their plan is to connect 220,000 more people later. Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, expects to connect ‘a couple hundred thousand’ users shortly, within their base of 54 million people.
The Big White wall uses high-tech formulas to profile users who also take tests to measure and determine their levels of stress and depression, giving a variety of methods to express their perceptions, feelings, emotions, inhibitions and frustrations in the bid to systematically lighten their stress load, with the help of licensed psychiatrists and psychologists.
Anyone can use Talkabouts, except those with severe mental illnesses or though disorders. It is not a temporary for in-hospice care.
As open as it seems, however, Big White Wall can only be accessed by those with tablets, personal computers, and android devices generally. Those without internet access have to make do with the traditional mental care providers.
