futuresTHRIVE Secures Investment to Accelerate Development of Early-Stage Mental Health Assessment Platform for Children
Startup working to provide doctors and parents with better tools to identify mental health conditions in children at a much earlier age, leading to intervention and better health outcomes
futuresTHRIVE, a startup working to improve early mental health screening, tracking, and outcomes among youth, today announced that it has received a $100,000 investment from the Connecticut Innovations prototype design fund to commence the development of its modernized mental health screener, used to identify mental health conditions in children ages 4-20 (Prototype 9-14). Using a combination of artificial intelligence, sentiment analysis, and machine learning, the fT screener will provide a first-of-its-kind mental health baseline that can be used by doctors and families to better understand a child’s unique mental health qualities.
The investment will enable fT to advance its game platform from design to development while continuing to pursue interest from additional investors. The company expects to launch the platform in late fall of 2021.
“Millions of awareness campaign dollars later, the CDC still reports that 20% of children suffer from a diagnosable mental health condition, half of whom will show signs and symptoms before the age of 14,” said Wendy Ward, fT Founder. “Using our web-based platform, we can help pediatricians and mental health professionals more readily identify mild and moderate risk factors in children that are known to be indicators of mental health concerns. We are grateful to CI for their expression of confidence in our platform and for helping us further our mission of improving the mental health futures of our children.”
fT is comprised of a team of experts in technology, youth mental health, and health statistics who have come together to develop the first significant advancement in early-stage mental health diagnostic tools since the 1990s and create a new vision for pediatric mental health screening. The company has secured key partnerships in healthcare, insurance, and assessment centers and plans to launch the platform in the pediatric market initially with expansion into K-12 education, colleges, universities, hospitals, and clinics.
“Too often today, mental health measures for children begin late and only after severe signs and symptoms have emerged,” Ward continued. “Our platform will arm doctors and parents with actionable insights that can be tracked in the same way as height, weight, and other health measures.”
About futureTHRIVE:
futuresTHRIVE is developing the tools to combat the trajectory of youth mental health concerns and identify and track pediatric mental health easily, early, and often. fT’s groundbreaking early intervention mental health screening tool for youth uses AI and game-based technology to affordably meet the acute needs of doctors, educators, and families. For more information, please visit: https://www.futuresthrive.com
Contact Author
ALYSON NIKULICZ
futuresTHRIVE
201-755-4166
