AIA Singapore, WhiteCoat launch digital mental health solution

With the rising awareness on mental wellness issues, there is now a need for employers to also provide a supportive corporate environment for mental well-being through an increased mental health insurance coverage.

To address this need, AIA Singapore (AIA), the leading life insurer in employee benefits, has partnered with WhiteCoat Holdings Pte. Ltd. (WhiteCoat), a Southeast Asian digital health company, to provide end-to-end digital mental healthcare solutions covering mental wellbeing through mental health therapy.

In a statement, AIA Singapore said that with the partnership, both companies hope to continue to raise awareness about mental health issues and increase accessibility to mental wellness support.

Bryan Koh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of WhiteCoat, said that employers have started to acknowledge the importance of providing mental health support to their workers in order to create a sustainable and healthy workplace.

“By developing the first insurer-backed, synchronous text-based mental wellness service through our platform, we want to positively impact workplace mental health through enhanced accessibility, convenience and privacy,” he said.

The Think Well programme (Think Well) will be embedded within all of AIA’s corporate outpatient plans and will leverage WhiteCoat’s omnichannel platform and network of mental health professionals to provide complimentary, synchronous text-based mental health coaching services to the insurer’s entire corporate outpatient base.

Under the programme, users will be asked to complete a mental health self-assessment and make a same-day appointment to speak via text to dedicated and qualified mental health professionals that comprise of psychologists and counsellors in real-time.

Follow-up care ranging from text, video or in-person consultations can be recommended to users on a personalised case-by-case basis.

WhiteCoat will also provide guided support through a dynamic and personalised content library of curated mental wellness articles as well as videos, and offer comprehensive resources to motivate members to stay mentally fit.

According to the National Population Health Survey that was published by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2022, 13.4 percent of those surveyed suffer from poor mental health. The figures showed an increase from the 12.5 percent that was logged in 2017.

Younger adults aged between 18 and 29 comprise the biggest share of those identified with poor mental health at 21.5 percent.

Alvin Fu, Chief Corporate Solutions Officer of AIA Singapore, said that mental health is a continuum. It may oscillate between healthy, to anxious, to hopelessness at various times in our lives.

“By providing Think Well, we aim to support our Singapore workforce through their mental well-being journey to help them to live Healthier, Longer, Better lives,” Fu said.

Fu said that Think Well is a key component of the WhiteCoat regional health passport, wherein they build on their vision to serve as the first and single touchpoint for all their users’ health and wellness needs across the region.

Think Well is the latest initiative under the AIA WhiteCoat partnership that started way back in 2019 in order to co-create the market’s first primary care telehealth service with straight through insurance claims processing.

Since then, the partnership has expanded to provide users with omnichannel access to specialist care, mental healthcare and home-based care through text, video and in-person consultations.