This week one of my fellow psychiatrists in San Francisco and one of my patients both suggested that I check out Kip Health, startup designed to improve collaboration between patients and their mental health providers.
The App is in beta and so it is bound to change over time. For example, right now it is free for both mental health providers and their clients or patients. It is also HIPAA compliant, which is a nice thing to see in a free app.
The core functionality consists of apps for iPhone and Android that you download after being invited to do so by your mental health professional. Once downloaded the app will give you reminders to check in and to complete assignments.
The app also has the potential to provide for secure messaging with your mental health professional.
Right now it’s relatively bare-bones but it is easy to use, midway between the overwhelming (for many) Optimism Online app and Mood 24×7 which texts you once a day asking you to rate the day on a scale from 0 to 10 and then jot down a brief description of what happened.
As an App it benefits from the ability to remind you to check in once a day from your cell phone, unlike the online mood charts we often create for patients.
We will be trying it out with a few of the people were working with and let you know what additional feedback we get.