MindSkiller® Launches At St Vincent's Private Hospital Sydney
After four years of relentless dedication and fine-tuning, MindSkiller® has officially launched.
On July 27th, 2023, St. Vincent's Private Hospital (SVPH) hosted the launch of MindSkiller®. The event brought together mental health professionals, hospital personnel, and GPs, all eager to learn about MindSkiller® and its integration into SVPH, including Uspace - the hospital’s mental health service for young adults.
The launch featured a line-up of distinguished speakers, with Heidi Barclay, CEO SVPH, inaugurating the event. Dr Gary Galambos, MindSkiller® Founder and Medical Director of Uspace, along with several other members of the Uspace team also took the stage to discuss how MindSkiller® is being incorporated in the unit.
Dr Galambos highlighted in his address that Uspace was a great source of inspiration behind the platform’s development. Being a specialist-grade and easily accessible mental health education service, MindSkiller® helps young people understand the language of mental health and the coping mechanisms suitable for their situation."[MindSkiller®] helps us do our jobs better," Dr Galambos begins. “It all started with me doing drawings, and then it turned into PowerPoint and then I started emailing it to patients... It became an endeavour to fill gaps [and] provide assistance to the whole spectrum of stakeholders in mental health."
MindSkiller® supports a suite of new innovative technologies incorporated in Uspace over the past year. By bundling intervention strategies such as MRI-guided Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Scent-Augmented Virtual Reality (VR) through the MindSkiller® PLUS service, the platform effectively "connects everything together," Barclay explains. As Uspace gears up to introduce a "world-first, unprecedentedly high-tech OCD program," MindSkiller's eLEARNING modules will be crucial in helping patients and their families."The program will utilise all of the innovative technologies introduced to Uspace and applying them to this new cohort of young people often neglected by mainstream services," Barclay goes on to say. "The Uspace team, many of whom are here tonight, does extraordinary work. I am proud of their track record and confident that the direction they are taking really holds incredible promise."
Members of the Uspace team have played a pivotal role in beta-testing the platform in the clinical environment before the launch— and their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Uspace's Clinical Nurse Educator, Marie Brady , provided valuable insight into how MindSkiller® will benefit the unit, highlighting its ability to connect intervention strategies with education.
"In the beginning, I said I can't be involved unless it is translational. I want to see what this is going to do for people, what it is going to do for the patients," Brady shared with the attendees. "I was involved in the beta-testing and absolutely enjoyed everything... I have seen a lot of other things in my career, but [MindSkiller®] was definitely something that was special and new. And then to package it with things like TMS, VR and Uspace... we need [these sort of packages] because what we have is not enough."
Brady is spot-on with her observation. As the number of Australians facing heightened psychological distress grows, innovation is necessary to address these challenges. And MindSkiller® is answering this call, already proving to be a powerful tool for Uspace inpatients on their mental health journey.
"What a sweet, satisfying launch event we had at St Vincent's - the atmosphere was warm, electric, magnetic. Excitement that something extraordinary is being unleashed!" Dr Galambos reflects. "There was a glowing satisfaction from the services, teams and strategic partners who inspired, supported and created this new resource that promises to do good work."
With the official public launch of MindSkiller® next month, it's clear that Dr Galambos has high hopes. MindSkiller® stands as a true disrupter in the field, making strides toward establishing an interconnected and accessible mental health sector in Australia.