Hofstra University student Michael Lai began working on a mental wellness app, along with students from Brown University, about two years ago. Now a third-year biology major, Lai is preparing to launch his app in mid-March.
Lai said his inspiration for the app came from his aspiration to work in the medical field in the future. “Both my co-founder and I were aspiring physicians and one particular area we were always interested in was mental illness and the psychiatric aspects of medicine.”
The app, CRESS Health, is a personalized mental wellness app that delivers confidential peer support for individuals undergoing a variety of mental wellness disorders. Lai and his co-founder chose the name to be representative of a real-world health remedy.
“The way we came up with the name is actually the watercress. We wanted it to be kind of representative of how the watercress is like a superfood, so the app is almost like a superfood for your mind,” Lai said.
Most of the app development team is located at Brown University but there are also interns at Hofstra who work on the marketing, outreach and financial aspects. Additionally, the help of Hofstra students, faculty and the Center for Entrepreneurship has played a key role in helping Lai launch the app.
CRESS Health was initially meant to serve as an addiction recovery platform. However, as Lai and his team gathered research and spoke to several different advisors, they realized how easily their app could be used to provide support to a broad spectrum of mental health disorders.
Once the app launches, it will allow users to enter peer groups where they can receive support from those who are facing similar circumstances. The focus on peer support comes from research Lai and his team have done. “In clinical literature,” Lai said, “it has been shown that support from a peer is more highly regarded than support from an adult or professional.”
Two students shared their thoughts on how they think the app will impact users. “I feel like it would [be] beneficial, if it’s anonymous, because you’re just getting it out there without people knowing who you are,” said sophomore marketing major Nicolette Camardi.
Max Sacco, a sophomore public relations major, had a similar opinion, “People need resources, so any resources that can help will always be good.”
John Guthman, executive director of the Hofstra Student Health and Counseling Center, expressed his opinion on how the app will benefit users. “I think it’s always helpful when individuals have an opportunity to talk with others about emotional or personal challenges they face and providing opportunities for people to do that is a good thing,” Guthman said.
“If folks get to do that with peers that’s good as well because I think it sort of normalizes experiences that many people share and it provides a network of support that goes beyond what you only get in a traditional counseling office or a similar setting,” Guthman said. “And so, I think it’s great that this app may facilitate opportunities for people to communicate.”
Guthman also noted that over the last few years he has noticed a significant increase in the amount of people willing to access mental health counseling. “I think one of the more rewarding trends is the destigmatization of mental health support over the years,” Guthman said.
“We’ve seen not only a willingness for students to bring themselves in and seek support but also a willingness for students to encourage others to come in and get support and even escorting them and facilitating, in a number of ways, students’ connection to counseling.”
While the app has yet to be released to the public, Lai and his team have won several awards for their work. Last year they placed third in the Hofstra-Digital Remedy Venture Challenge, which provided them the initial seed funding to start their app. Last summer, the group won the National GMAT Competition and this past fall, they placed second in the Healthcare Entrepreneurship Challenge. Lai and his team have been using competition funds to run beta tests. The app has undergone numerous redesigns in preparation for its launch.
Lai hopes that when his app launches it will provide those suffering with mental health disorders with a support system of people who are having similar experiences.
“The reason we built this app is to help individuals struggling with mental wellness or identity disorders really get the support they need,” Lai said. “At CRESS what we always say is: ‘Everyone deserves support,’ and that’s what we’re really trying to accomplish.”
