remind app launch

If you’d have told me six years ago, that today I’d be launching an app to support people with trauma and PTSD, I wouldn’t have believed you. I was battling with Post Traumatic Stress every day after being caught up in a terror attack in 2017.

Despite having therapy and charity support, it was a continuous 24/7 struggle. It was hard to see how things would ever get better. I felt totally isolated as I struggled to communicate what I was going through. Those around me often wanted to help but didn’t always know how. With a lot of perseverance and trial and error, I found the tools that worked for me, learnt how to put them into practice and how to manage my mental health. Slowly I was able to rebuild my life.

Along the way I learnt more about trauma, how many of us are affected by it and how I was far from alone in the challenges I faced with sharing my experiences, accessing support and recovery. With a professional skill set in consulting and technology, I began to believe and feel passionately there was something I could do to help others who were experiencing trauma. I left my role in the city to start re;mind.

“Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering.” (Peter Levine)

Trauma is a significant contributor to mental ill-health and a prominent risk factor for depression, PTSD and other mental health diagnoses. There aren’t any statistics for how many people have trauma and those available for PTSD are nearly ten years old. They indicate that 1 in 25 people in the UK have diagnosable PTSD, translating to at least 2.6 million with PTSD. However, the numbers are believed to be rather higher and those struggling with trauma even higher still. Even if you’re not struggling with it yourself, it’s likely someone that you know is. Professional support can be hard to access with a number of barriers to overcome, including figuring out where to go, overwhelming information online, long waiting lists and expensive fees. According to PTSD UK, only 1 in 4 people with PTSD get any professional support.

From our research, the most common challenge we heard was getting through the moments when you were experiencing distressing trauma symptoms and trying to cope on your own.

If you can’t access professional support, how do you learn tools to help manage your symptoms? Even with professional support there are 167 hours in a week outside of a therapy room where you are on your own, and even if you have supportive friends and family they probably can’t be there or on the end of the phone to help you every single time you need it. So, what do you do in the moments you need help but you’re alone?

And what happens when support is finished, how do you continue to make progress?

At re;mind, we know how overwhelming and lonely it can be experiencing and dealing with trauma symptoms every day. We created the re;mind app to support you through the moments you need help most. The app provides mental health support at your fingertips, wherever you are, whenever you need it. This can be whilst waiting for, alongside and continuing long after professional support.

The app development has been led by people with real-life experience of trauma. It is evidence-based: carefully developed and tested over 3 years with user and clinical input and underpinned by psychology and data science every step of the way.

With the app you can:

• relieve – use psychology tools to help find relief from distressing trauma symptoms when triggered. Get regular reminders to help you practice self-care.
• track – Keep track of your feelings, symptoms and triggers. Take a minute to reflect on your day, recognising positive moments in your day as well as providing a safe space to share the hard ones.
• Understand – See your progress and gain a deeper insight into your own wellbeing patterns. Learn more about trauma and related topics with reliable resources and information

During our large-scale pilot, 85% of users said the app was a useful or major part of a wider toolkit in looking after their mental health.

People also shared the following feedback during the beta testing:

“Loving checking in daily, it’s helping me think in a more positive way.”

“Having somewhere to record my feelings, both good and bad, has been invaluable, to help understand that this difficult time will pass.”

“It’s useful for trying to track triggers & I love the grounding tools”

I am so happy and proud to say that the app is now available to download from the app stores. I really hope that if you are struggling with trauma right now, or know someone who is, that the app can help support you on your recovery journey.

A huge thank you to the hundreds of people who have taken part in all our research and testing for trusting me with your deeply personal stories and experiences so we can build something that’s really needed. Another big thank you to all those who have supported re;mind’s journey in some way so far for their time, input and expertise, and especially PTSD UK who have believed in and supported our mission from the beginning.

And of course a final huge thank you to the small but mighty re;mind team, for all their input and hard work to reach this exciting milestone.

The app launch today has been the goal for so long, but it is really just the start!

Follow re;mind’s journey on social media or get in touch on team@remindhalth.io if you’re interested in the app to support your organisation!