Mental health in education and the workplace has been moving up the educational agenda in recent years, surfacing complex issues that have a major impact on learning experiences and outcomes.

As research continues to track and monitor challenges for learners and employees in fast-changing institutions and organizations, governments around the world look to address broader issues like learning loss and longer term impacts of the pandemic through changes in policy and funding. The EdTech industry offers an increasing array of innovative digital support and solutions for different mental health challenges, from prevention and management platforms to counselling and tele-therapy, content and curriculum, support for social emotional learning and organizational analytics for tracking and troubleshooting.

In K-12 education, as many as one in five students in the US experience mental health concerns in any given year, including anxiety, depression and behavior disorders. Research suggests that over 1.2m students did not return to the US public school system following the pandemic, and around 230,000 remain unaccounted for. Around the world, those coming back to school have dealt with learning loss, equity issues and ongoing disruptions across the teacher workforce.

In higher education, the American Council on Education (ACE) notes that the demand for mental health services has been rising dramatically for more than a decade, and that the current growth is not unique to COVID-19. Among the cohorts under pressure are educators around the world, especially in the K12 sector. Ongoing strikes and failure to retain staff is putting further strain on institutions where the effects of the pandemic are still being felt.

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Mental health prevention and management

Prevention and management of mental health issues is an ongoing area of focus for schools, universities, and workplaces. This includes promoting mental health awareness among students, teachers, parents, and employees, reducing social stigma around mental health issues, and providing resources for early identification and ongoing management of mental health and wellbeing.

Digital solutions for prevention and management include apps and platforms that integrate mental health awareness and support into everyday routines. Examples include Sonder, a safety, medical and mental health platform for workplaces and education institutions, and TalkLife, a global peer-to-peer support network offering solutions for universities and workplaces. Providers are also tackling the need for teacher support, such as Teacherspace, a Danish organization focussed on how to improve teacher quality and retention with virtual mentoring.

Content & Curriculum

Mental health content and curriculum can be integrated into other digital solutions and platforms, or offered as a standalone service in the form of educational courses, training, videos, apps and games. In the workplace, LifeSpeak is a well-established Canadian organisation who provide expert-led 'micro-learnings' to support mental health and resilience in the workplace, whilst German provider Likeminded offers online group mental health courses. Others like UK organisation Place2be provide mental health training in schools or raise mental health awareness among college students, like Active Minds in the US.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

Whilst Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is not a mental health intervention, school-based SEL programs proactively support students’ mental, social and emotional well-being. Often used in tandem with analytics and educational content, educators can use SEL tools to identify individual and cohort-related trends, select appropriate programs and facilitate communication about student development.

US platform 7 Mindsets is one of the larger providers in this space, and has made a series of recent acquisitions and integrations to expand its offering within and beyond K12 institutions. Others specialise in a particular sub-sector like Finnish company Ympyräiset (pre-K) or Canadian Peekapak, who provide a narrative-based learning experience to facilitate social emotional learning in the primary and secondary classroom.

Customers click through to the full Briefing and Market Map

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Counselling, teletherapy & support services

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, counseling, therapy, and other mental health support services have undergone significant changes to adapt to new challenges and increased demand. Online platforms and apps offering self-help resources, guided therapy sessions, and mental health assessments became more prevalent as services shifted to virtual platforms such as video conferencing and text-based solutions.

Providers offer a broad spectrum of solutions, particular in the US and UK, but increasingly in other countries where counseling and therapy may be less well established as an industry. The US has seen investments in large, established providers such as Mantra and Hazel Health, as well as Uwill, which partners with colleges to offer students on-demand virtual access to licensed therapists and providers trained in crisis counseling. In the UAE, online counseling platform Takalam recently partnered with Serco to support university students' mental wellbeing, whilst Swedish provider OmMej is collaborating with Studybee to support students in K12 schools.

Measuring & Monitoring

Analytics, measurement, and monitoring systems enable schools, universities, and workplaces to adopt data-informed approaches to mental health management. By leveraging data and analytics, institutions can enhance their capacity to address mental health concerns, create supportive environments, and ensure the well-being of their students, employees, and stakeholders.

Many platforms, content and services in the mental health provider landscape offer integrated analytics; likewise, analytics-based solutions also tend to offer related support via content or services for learners, educators and employees. Some like ROSA and Know My Students focus more on screening and assessment, whilst others monitor and measure aspects of mental health, either generally or in specific areas such as Social Emotional Learning.

HolonIQ Customers can view the list of mapped organizations, current developments and global reports on mental health in education in the full platform briefing.