This Founder Wants You to Get Mental Health Care Now—Before You Hit Rock Bottom

This Founder Wants You to Get Mental Health Care Now—Before You Hit Rock Bottom

– One of the big reasons why there’s a stigma
associated with mental health. Is because the only people who reach the mental healthcare system are those who have hit rock bottom. Whereas if we built a
system that met people every year of life, like
our annual physicals, like in physical care does, then it’s suddenly wouldn’t
be something associated with crisis or something associated with rock bottom. So, really to change it it’s not about slapping
a cute brand on it. It’s about changing the experience itself. [upbeat music] I’m Ariela Safira, the
founder and CEO of Real. I’m 26 years old and I’m on a mission to
improve mental health care. Real is a new kind of
mental health care company. My vision was and still is to build a mental health practice that people engage in regularly. This should be an experience and something you take part in everyday and you think of every day. That’s not a doctor’s appointment, right? And it’s not a one-time experience. It is a part of your everyday life. And whether that’s a
one-on-one therapy appointment, a group experience, an event, different channels and avenues for you to understand yourself from the comfort of your own home. David Kelly, given his
background in design. Design of spaces, taught me about what does the physical space of a rehab or inpatient
mental health facility. What does that physical
space supposed to be doing for patients? And what is it actually doing today? These physical spaces were missing, heart, warmth, care, right? And so really what we need to do is we need to bring safety and care to those facilities and that doesn’t currently exist. – Ariela, tell me a little
bit about your family. – I grew up with parents
who were immigrants. My mother was born and raised in Poland. My father is a Yemeni Jew
born and raised in Israel. Both of them came here in their twenties. And my older brother was
sort of a third parent for me although he is four years, my senior. – You were a disruptor early on. You were the only girl on your high school’s wrestling team. – Being the only girl on the
grappling team, man I was from a young age very
comfortable being different. I think I was, motivated
even by standing out a bit and knew that the only way
I could comfortably do so was if I excelled at the sport and certainly sought to do that. – Something happened when you
were a freshman at Stanford that was extremely upsetting. – A friend of mine attempted
to take her own life. It was certainly the first time I’d ever experienced
something so traumatic. I hadn’t heard from her for a few weeks. Received an email that
shared what had happened and that she was currently in rehab. The first time she’d ever
seen a mental health clinician is when she had attempted
to take her life. I think very quickly I’d thought. Imagine if the first time someone saw a primary care physician was
when they had cancer, right? It was very clear to make
this system is failing us. If people aren’t even meeting
the system until crisis. It didn’t start as a mission
to start a company, of course. It started as I guess curiosity and even more so like shame
and frustration over what the system currently looks like and slowly ended up spending my entirety of Stanford exploring it. – What kinds of things did you do Ariela to better understand the
mental health care system that really was representative of what it was like across the country? – I applied to tens of grants,
visit rehabs throughout the country. Inpatient mental health facilities. I interviewed architects who designed inpatient
mental health facilities. Really to learn why do
we make the decisions in mental health care that we make. I then spent three months
working in Liverpool England what’s considered the most
innovative mental ward in the world. To learn, what do they
do that’s so innovative and have me bring that
with us here to the U.S. And the most innovative step they really took was being more proactive. – You’re 24, you’re
trying to get investors, was it hard to get people
who got your vision? – Of course, there were many investors who didn’t get it. Who didn’t understand that we can ever live in a country where everyone practice mental health. Then probably didn’t understand that a 24 year old would
get the country there. The lead investor in my
first round was Anu Duggal. The founder of Female Founders Fund. Was the first person to
immediately believe in and cling on to Real. I want mental health care to
be a part of overall life. I mean, I even think that
it should be a part of our family systems. It should be integrated in how we go about everyday. And that’s what I aim to do for this country. Disrupting to me really
means taking 10 steps back and asking, what is this system that I’m looking at? Who is it supposed to serve? And if it’s not actually serving
that community right now, how can I improve it? [upbeat music]

Presented by Ally | A friend’s suicide attempt opened Ariela Safira’s eyes to the state of the mental health care industry: “Imagine if the first time someone saw a primary care physician was when they had cancer.”

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This Founder Wants You to Get Mental Health Care Now—Before You Hit Rock Bottom