Did you know that 1 in every 2 people globally will experience a mental health issue at least once in their lifetime or that the economic impact of common mental health conditions is a staggering trillion dollars annually?

Statistics aside, you all might know someone—a family member, a colleague, a friend or you yourself—that’s grappling with a mental health challenge. This is an issue that touches everyone!

While there is a lot more awareness about mental health, a little lesser stigma around mental health, there is a severe shortage of specialists and tools that can help these specialists deal with the rising population that needs help. Mental health covers a vast spectrum, and practitioners often struggle with not having standardized tools to help patients dealing with conditions like OCD, social anxiety, substance abuse, and phobias. And technology is an enabler that can help bridge this gap.

avika empowers mental health professionals through a tech enabled platform that enhances the delivery of evidence based therapy protocols through VR and AI, improving patient engagement and driving better outcomes. 

Today, mental health practitioners follow evidence based therapies like ERT, CBT, cue based therapies and these protocols rely on guided imagery. This essentially means the patient is required to imagine they are in a stressful situation – a process that’s subjective and difficult

But what if, instead of relying on imagination, we could place patients in a controlled, immersive environment where they can actively confront their fears?

With avika’s Mind Health product, therapists can now bring those environments to life. By using VR/MR technology, therapists can select specific virtual environments tailored to a patient’s condition, place the VR headset on the patient and have them be “present” in that environment. In addition to the 360 degree environment, the audio instructions/cues in local languages makes this a highly immersive yet controlled experience.

Our platform thus serves as an adjunct therapy tool, supporting holistic treatment plans and transforming mental health care better results.

But not all mental health issues require a visit to a psychiatric center. In today’s world, we all face daily stress, anxiety, and burnout. This is where our second product, aura, comes in. Whether you’re an overworked professional, a student facing exam pressure, or just someone dealing with daily stress, aura offers a 15-minute immersive experience.

In a quiet room/ pod,  through serene virtual environments and soothing music, you can pause, reset, and re-center yourself. Imagine escaping the noise of the day, even if just for a moment. aura gives you that sanctuary—through what we call happiness center!

And there is more we intend to do as we go along – bring in interactivity to the experiences, create specific experiences for assisting with neuro rehab patients, create a measurable biofeedback based data collection for the therapy process.

We are just about an year old as a company and during this time

We’ve deployed our clinical product in 16 psychiatric centers.

Conducted over 5000 VR therapy sessions, impacting 3000 patients directly.

We’ve partnered with a luxury hotel group to roll out aura by the end of October.

The founding team comprises of people from varied skills. Together, we’ve combined technology and healthcare to make mental health treatment more accessible and effective. 

Mental health is a global crisis, and at avika, we believe we can make a real difference. We may not solve it all, but we are sure we’ll make a significant impact. As a wise man once said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”