Sharecare, a company best known for its patient engagement and benefits-navigation tools, is looking to help folks understand how their brains work with its new mental health app Unwinding.
The company pitches this new app as a way for users to help reduce their stress levels and build healthy habits. Users can participate in mini-master classes that help them learn new techniques to help manage stress and change unwanted behaviors.
The tool will also offer live events, personalized stress-reduction offerings and a library of videos aimed to help relax and get a good night’s sleep.
The company is selling the app as an annual subscription service. The regular price will cost users $59.99 for the annual service, but it’s offering a limited-time price of $35.99 for the first year.
THE LARGER TREND
According to the CDC, 11.2% of adults in the U.S. report regular feelings of worry, nervousness or anxiety.
In January, the American Psychological Association reported that more than eight in 10 Americans reported feeling stress within the previous two weeks.
“Stress hides in our bodies and in our habits. We try to disconnect from the discomfort of stress with seemingly unrelated behaviors like overeating, procrastinating, and excessive social media use,” Dr. Jud Brewer, Sharecare’s executive medical director of behavioral health, who also serves as director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center, said in a statement.
“Stress is a normal part of life, yet how we deal with it makes a critical difference in both our daily lives and ultimately our long-term health and happiness. We developed Unwinding by Sharecare to help every individual – no matter how stressed or stuck in bad habits they are – understand how their minds work, so they can work better with their minds.
THE LARGER TREND
Founded by TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz in 2010, Sharecare is no stranger to the mental health space. In 2020, the company purchased MindScience, a tech-backed behavioral health platform for an undisclosed sum.
Over the winter, Sharecare announced that it would go public through a SPAC merger.
Digital mental health is a hot market right now. According to Rock Health, in 2020, $2.4 billion of venture dollars poured into digital mental health.