INARA

Mental health is continuing to deteriorate throughout the globe, and the offset of the pandemic hasn’t made things easier. Hence, it is the vision of 4 UC Berkeley students to create a platform which empowers individuals to discover alternative forms of treatment for mental health problems. Irtaza Mehdi, Mark Wu, Morgan Lamberti and Maia Bickert all share the the collective vision of finding solutions to better the state of mental health, as they believe that the traditional mental health system is archaic and doesn’t always help people find the answers they’re looking for.

Their platform INARA, is integrated with blockchain technology to reward users while giving them the ability to utilize a variety of treatments. Blockchain technology enables them to handle greater amounts of data with ease, while also creating a tokenized system which incentivizes users to contribute to INARA.

There were many challenges which arose during the cultivation of INARA, through questions on liability issues with HIPAA, however they were able to find solutions by building their infrastructure as one which doesn’t conflict with HIPAA protocols.

These 4 students are incredibly passionate about mental health because they understand that it is nothing to take with ease, seeing their family members, friends and peers suffer from various illness, provided them with the motivation to build something which could change the lives of millions of people.