Bangalore, India, May 21, 2020 --(PR.com)-- Aetna International this week announced a partnership with award-winning app Wysa (www.wysa.io), recommended by ORCHA UK as the #1 app for mental wellness, to expand its suite of mental wellness services, and address the mental health needs of its members arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The health effects of COVID-19 are not just physical. We are facing an unusual and challenging set of circumstances, which have had a huge impact on the mental health and day-to-day lives of many people,” said Richard di Benedetto, President, Aetna International. Surveys by Pew Research show that nearly one in three people in the US have had trouble sleeping, felt anxious, or depressed in March. Nervousness and anxiety levels are twice as high as previously. In the UK, more than 25 million people were affected by high levels of anxiety in the month of March alone, according the Office of National Statistics.

With this partnership, Aetna International members and employees can access text-based support from Wysa to manage their stress, anxiety and sleep. Using Wysa’s award-winning, unique combination of AI chat, digital self-help and human support they get a space to just talk, access to 100+ self-management techniques, and support from Wya’s trained mental health coaches as well as signposted to Aetna’s other medical and mental health services.

“In this time of need, enhancing support by combining our in-person services with scalable, remotely available digital mental health solutions is key,” highlighted Simon Miller, Senior Director, Customer Proposition, Aetna International.

“Through Wysa, we see an opportunity to help our members when they need it - even if it’s at 4 am. This is an engaging, easy-to-access ‘front door’ digital service for day-to-day mental wellness support, which also creates custom pathways for a member so they can access Aetna’s other mental health and medical services.”

“In a world where uncertainty is the new normal, we are here to do what it can to help. We’re thrilled that we can work with Aetna to have Wysa support the mental wellbeing and be a listening ear for Aetna International’s community,” said Ramakant Vempati, co-founder, Wysa.

The Aetna-Wysa partnership was incubated at the Hartford InsurTech Hub (HIH). “Based at one of the world’s top insurance centres, we are supported by Aetna and other leading insurers. We saw Wysa was solving a big problem for insurers: scaling up mental health support, yet using efficient triage to optimise delivery costs and resourcing,” said Dawn LeBlanc, Managing Director, Hartford InsurTech Hub.

“Mental health is central to our strategy and increasingly an area of focus during Covid-19. Accelerating innovations like Wysa in digital mental health, working with partners like the HIH, will play a key role in building for the future,” concluded Celia R Peterson, VP of Strategy and Consumer Experience, Aetna-CVS.

About Wysa
Wysa is an AI-based "emotionally intelligent" chat platform, which combines AI chat and digital self-help with expert human support to its users directly as well as enable insurers, healthcare providers, employers offer large-scale self-management of mental wellness to their members, patients, and employees and a customisable care pathway to more advanced support. With 1.9 million users across more than 30 countries, Wysa is the top-rated app in the NHS and by ORCHA for stress and anxiety, and also ORCHA’s top app to manage anxiety and support self-care during COVID-19. Wysa responds to the emotions that users express and uses evidence-based cognitive-behavioural techniques (CBT), DBT, meditation, breathing, yoga, motivational interviewing and micro-actions to help build mental resilience skills and feel better. For more information, see https://www.wysa.io/

Media enquiries for Wysa: [email protected]

About Aetna International
Aetna International is committed to helping create a stronger, healthier global community by delivering comprehensive health care benefits and population health solutions worldwide. One of the largest providers of international private medical insurance, Aetna International serves more than 800,000 members worldwide, including expatriates, local nationals and business travelers. Its global benefits include medical, dental, vision and emergency assistance and, in some regions, life and disability. Aetna International also offers customised technological and health management solutions for health care systems, government entities and large employers to improve people’s health, enhance quality of care and contain costs. Aetna International is a subsidiary of Aetna, a CVS Health company, which serves an estimated 39 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. For more information, see www.aetnainternational.com or LinkedIn.