Mental health consulting agency Speaks 2 Inspire has partnered with FRANSiS™, a company that provides a text message subscription service to help encourage and motivate people using the psychology of EMIs (Ecological Momentary Interventions). According to Speaks 2 Inspire founder Abraham Sculley, the two companies and mental health allies have come together to reach out to more young adults on campuses across the US.
Speaks 2 Inspire provides workshops, training seminars, and consulting services to colleges and universities to help them build their infrastructure around their mental health services and policies on campus. It educates young adults about the mental health signs to look out for if they or their peers are struggling and how to get support. It also provides training for faculty, staff, and administrators on how to identify students that are in need of counseling services.
Meanwhile, FRANSiS™ provides its subscribers with random daily text messages that provide encouragement, lift their mood, and help them think more positively. EMIs provide regular, small “doses” of treatment that are integrated into recipients' daily lives. Subscribers receive messages providing emotional support, positive psychology, and brain training, and the service creates a safe space for users, where they can vent freely or respond to journaling prompts. The service also uses artificial intelligence to determine the content of users' responses, directing them to vital services, such as crisis helplines, if needed.
Sculley says that FRANSiS™' model complements the work his company does with educational institutions. Speaks 2 Inspire usually does campus-wide presentations or workshops about mental health, both in person and virtually, where students are encouraged to get help and talk about difficult conversations during the event. However, after the presentation is over, there is too often no framework for follow-up on the students' mental health.
Thanks to the partnership, Speaks 2 Inspire will encourage attendees of its presentations to subscribe to FRANSiS™, allowing them to receive timely and evidence-based interventions to help improve their mental health. The randomized nature of FRANSiS™' texts mean that students will receive different messages on a given day, and this will encourage them to talk with each other about the texts they received, opening up further conversations on mental health. In addition, Speaks 2 Inspire has developed a four-phase framework to ensure school administrations are implementing best practices and providing the necessary resources for students.
The partnership will also expand the reach and networks of both companies, which have been doing extensive work with educational institutions over the past few years.
Sculley says that mental health in college and university campuses is an extremely important, but often neglected issue, with available guidance and counseling services underutilized and out of reach of students. Around 65% of college students have untreated mental health issues, partially due to the surrounding stigma about talking about these issues and seeking help.
Sculley established Speaks 2 Inspire from his personal experience on how a timely conversation with a friend helped him address a major mental health issue. The company now has a total of six mental health advocates and experts from a diverse range of backgrounds, allowing it to relate to as wide an audience as possible.
Founder of Speaks 2 Inspire, Abraham Sculley
“I was raised in a Jamaican household to first-generation immigrants, and I was the first in my family to go to college. In my first year, I experienced an overwhelming amount of stress and pressure, as I was also working to support myself. It reached a point where I was extremely burnt out. Thankfully, my friend recognized that I was struggling and that I wasn't myself, so she reached out to me. I eventually opened up and shared with her what I was going through, and she introduced me to the counseling center on campus, which was the first time in my life I went to see a mental health professional. If it wasn't for my friend, I would probably be in a much worse condition today. The partnership between Speaks 2 Inspire and FRANSiS™ hopes to replicate this on campuses, eradicating the stigma around mental health and starting more conversations to lead more students to seek professional help,” Says founder Abraham Sculley.
