Seeing schools and educational institutions working hard every day to support the mental health of their students, a startup called Sonar Mental Health has built a health care companion named Sonny to support.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Sonny is a chatbot that combines human resources and AI technology. When students send their psychological questions to Sonny, AI will propose answers, but it is humans who are truly responsible for that message.
Sonar Company signed a cooperation agreement with the first school in January 2024 and up to now, this chatbot has been serving more than 4,500 junior high and high school students.
The company said the conversations are currently being monitored by a team of six people with psychology and social work knowledge and who directly support the hotline to receive crisis cases.
CEO Drew Bavir shared that he is always transparent with students and schools about Sonny not being a therapist, and Sonar's qualified human resources will work with schools and parents to find the right therapy for each student.
Sonny acts as a bridge between students and the mental health support department, especially in emergency situations or when students have difficulty finding direct help. The combination of AI and humans helps ensure the accuracy and safety of information, while providing timely support.
This can be seen as a solution to the shortage of psychological counselors in schools in the US. The US Department of Education said that 17% of high schools in the US do not have psychological counseling departments.
Ensuring the confidentiality of students' personal information and privacy is also a big challenge for Sonar. To achieve optimal results, the company needs to tighten security policies and establish close coordination between schools, parents, students and Sonar's team of experts.
