Helsa’s mission is to improve mental health and wellbeing in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as other minority groups, through research based training and support solutions. 

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Our training workshops are focused on increasing awareness, empathy and understanding towards sexual and gender minority people, which in turn reduces stigma and discrimination. 

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We are currently developing a virtual reality product for our training workshops, named Empathy VR. This idea has quickly gained interest and traction, and we won the Rare Impact Unity for Humanity 2021 global annual competition, for companies using VR for positive social impact, awarding us a grant as well as technical support from a dedicated Unity team. 

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Empathy VR is an educational virtual reality tool that increases its user’s level of empathy towards minority groups by allowing them to experience first-hand what it is like to face and work through prejudice, discrimination, and stigma as a gender, ethnic, or sexual minority person. 

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We support LGBTQ+ people by providing tools that help them understand their own mental health and steps they can take towards improving it. Unfortunately, due to stigma and discrimination, LGBTQ+ people are still up to 3 times more likely to suffer from common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. 

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On our platform, LGBTQ+ people can set up a free account to access our four wellbeing tests (assessing their levels of stress, depression, anxiety and minority stress) as well as a proprietary matching algorithm, to match LGBTQ+ people with LGBTQ+ specialised therapists. We currently have over 50 LGBTQ+ specialised Helsa Partner Therapists on the platform, offering both online and offline support.

 

Our vision is for all people to feel and be treated equally, regardless of their sexuality, gender, ethnicity, background, or ability. 

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