A Denver startup is developing a software add-on that will help identify gamers that are struggling with mental health issues and get them help.
Two years ago, Deb Chromik had never heard of the streaming app Twitch. She was introduced to it by her son, an avid gamer that had found a community on it.
“What I discovered through watching my son find the best version of himself, was a virtual space where many of the individuals that we, as a society, are failing to reach, are choosing to be,” she said.
Given Twitch’s younger audience, Chromik began to explore the possibilities of reaching an at-risk audience and providing life-saving resources to those in need.
She teamed up with Katherine Browning and David Walters in June 2018 to found The Matrix Guard.
From within the Twitch platform, The Matrix Guard's AI will identify gamers who may be struggling with serious mental health issues and offer them human support from a mental health professional.
The AI, which is still under development, is based on four pillars: find, assess, connect and engage.
It analyzes text communication on Twitch and flags risk for self-harm, bullying, hatred and more, enabling a trained individual to review the text and determine next steps.
From there, the trained person can connect with the individual to see if they need or will accept support. If they do accept that support, they will then be connected to the services that will benefit them most.
As Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and others are already directing attention to finding those at risk, The Matrix Guard has made a small pivot to accommodate that.
“Given their resources relative to ours, we’ve restructured our vision to create an AI add-on that can piggy-back on any existing risk algorithm, enabling those identified at risk to connect directly and immediately with a human who can assess and help the individual connect with right resources,” Chromik said.
The three-person company recently landed a spot in the National Council for Behavioral Health's Shark Tank competition at NatCon20 in Austin, Texas, on April 4.
The Matrix Guard is bootstrapped and Chromik said the company would like to stay that way, unless they find an investor that has a shared passion with their mission.
The company will spend the remainder of 2020 refining its AI, testing its viability and looking for partnerships to accelerate the company’s timeline.
Above all else, Chromik said the company wants to reach and support those who are at-risk online.
“All humans have a desire to be well, to be seen, to know we matter,” she said. “It is our belief that through early identification of risk, we can join people where they choose to be, and in making these connections we can change the trajectory of pain from tragedy to wellbeing.”
