There is a huge global unmet need for care. In the first year of covid, the prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25% worldwide
, from counselling through chat services to online self-help. WeChat, Weibo and TikTok, the country’s giant social networks, swung into action, offering mental-health education and services.
Interest in mental-health tech had been growing even before the pandemic. Today, between 10,000 and 20,000 such apps are available for download. Their, and the dangers of bias in algorithms are well known. The risks to privacy, and not just in China, are serious. Still, America’s National Institutes of Health reckons tech has opened a “new frontier” in mental-health support. Robots seem certain to play an important role in assessing and treating mental-health conditions.
Although mobile networks cover 85% of the population, half the world does not have internet access; in low-income countries, only one-fifth do. But that too presents an opportunity: governments seeking to help citizens’ mental health have a cheap option in the form of lending or financing mobile phones.