The Future of Mental Health is Digital–and it's Here

By Nicky White for The 44 North

Photo: Alisa Simon shares insights from Kids Help Phone, Canada's only 24/7, free, multilingual digital mental health solution for young people, at eMHIC24.

Mental health struggles hit close to home for all of us. Whether it’s dealing with anxiety before a big exam, supporting a friend through a tough time, or just trying to keep your head

above water, we all know how hard it can be to access the right help when we need it. But what if mental health care was as easy to access as your favorite playlist? That’s the vision of

the eMental Health International Collaborative (eMHIC)—a global organization committed to making sure that anyone, anywhere, can get the mental health support they need.

Why Digital Mental Health Matters 

Traditional mental health services are overwhelmed. Long waitlists, expensive therapy, and complicated systems mean that millions of people aren’t getting the care they need. eMHIC is tackling this head-on by making digital mental health solutions available 24/7. Imagine having access to AI-driven mental health check-ins, crisis helplines you can text, peer support communities, and apps designed to help you track your well-being—all at your fingertips.  As eMHIC’s Executive Director, Professor Anil Thapliyal, puts it: “We must focus on the service user, their families, and caregivers. If it does not work for them, it does not work at

all.” That’s why eMHIC ensures that digital mental health solutions aren’t just available but are practical, effective, and tailored to people’s real needs.

Building a Better System for Everyone 

The global mental health crisis is more than a challenge—it’s an opportunity to innovate, collaborate, and create a system that works for everyone. eMHIC is at the forefront of this movement, helping countries build digital-first mental health care systems that are sustainable and scalable.

● Develop digital mental health policies and standards.

● Ensure individuals with lived experience have a say in shaping solutions.

● Train mental health professionals to use digital tools effectively.

● Integrate cutting-edge research into real-world applications.

● Work with industry leaders to drive innovation in mental health tech.

The goal? To create a future where mental health support is instant, inclusive, and accessible to everyone—no exceptions. 

Spreading Knowledge, Driving Change 

eMHIC is making sure that mental health care evolves with technology. Here’s how they’re keeping the world informed and connected:

● Knowledge Bank: A one-stop hub for news, case studies, digital tools, and expert insights on the latest in digital mental health.

● Webinars: Virtual events featuring top experts, from researchers and clinicians to government officials and people with lived experience.

● Newsletters: Monthly updates packed with must-know advancements in digital mental health.

● eMHIC Congress: A global gathering where leaders, innovators, and policymakers team up to push the boundaries of mental health care.

​Amplifying Diverse Voices for Change 

Storytelling is a powerful force for social change, and eMHIC is committed to amplifying diverse voices to inspire innovative mental health solutions. Hailey Hechtman, Executive Director at Unsinkable, highlights the impact of this global collaboration:  “We have so appreciated our partnership with eMHIC. They have provided us with a space to connect with mental health professionals and those with living expertise across the globe, encouraging storytelling as a medium for social and systems change and by recognizing the importance of amplifying diverse voices to help generate new and innovative solutions.”

By fostering these global conversations, eMHIC drives real-world change and ensures that mental health care is shaped by those who understand it best—those with lived experience.  

Mental Health for All: No One Left Behind  

Mental health struggles don’t discriminate. From young people navigating school and relationships to older adults facing isolation, everyone deserves support. That’s why eMHIC is pushing for mental health solutions that are adaptable, inclusive, and designed for real people in real situations.

The rapid rise of digital technology means new possibilities—AI-driven mental health assessments, telehealth therapy sessions, peer support platforms, and more. However, these tools must be designed with cultural awareness and accessibility in mind. eMHIC ensures that digital mental health solutions meet the needs of diverse communities, leaving no one behind. 

Join the Digital Mental Health Movement 

If you care about mental health—your own, your friends’, or your community’s—now is the time to get involved. eMHIC isn’t just for policymakers and doctors; it’s for everyone who wants mental health support to become as accessible as social media.

Want to learn more? Check out eMHIC’s work, join their webinars, and join the movement

changing how mental health care works.​ 

The conversation doesn’t stop here. eMHIC25, the 10th Digital Mental Health Global Congress, is bringing together world leaders, innovators, and change-makers to discuss ‘Global Mental Health Equity: Digital Solutions for an Interconnected World.’ This event is where real-world impact happens, and you can be part of it—in person or virtually. 

Mental health care is evolving. It’s becoming more accessible, more inclusive, and more effective. The question is—will you be part of shaping the future?

To learn more about how you can be part of eMHIC25 visit the official event site here. 

Learn more about eMHIC here.

5 Lessons to Take Into 2025

By Abbigale Kernya for The 44 North

Managing Editor

A woman with a sparkler celebrating the new year at a party.

1. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. 

This has been my motto lately. I’m sure my friends are sick of hearing about it, and I admit saying it out loud repeatedly makes me feel about thirty years older than I actually am, but it’s true. 

2024 was an epic learning curve for me in so many ways. Mental health specifically, I had a friend who was really struggling and spiralling with her mental health and I found myself sort of at a loss as to what to do. I didn’t know how to help her because everything I tried seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. It’s a very difficult thing to navigate when you empathize with how difficult living in a loved one’s brain must be, and all you want to do is help them get better. In my case, offering a safe and judgment-free zone didn’t go as far as I had hoped. The topic of medication was a hostile one, and I was met with anger and breakdowns whenever I offered to help find a therapist. 

I’m not going to lie, it was a really hard time for both of us. I loved this person like a sister, but I had to accept the fact that I couldn’t help her in the way she needed. Mental illness is an extremely complicated and heartbreaking condition of life, and it took me a long time and many long nights trying to reason and help support my friend who I couldn’t help get out of the self-destructive cycle she was in to realize my defeat. 

It got to a point where my mental health was suffering a lot and I didn’t want to be home and was falling behind on my schoolwork and work because I was just so drained. It broke my heart a little bit to realize any friendship we had was somewhere buried deep under the stress and anxiety of trying not to set her off.

I don’t want to pretend to understand what was going through my friend’s mind for the months I tried to help her, but I know it was unimaginable to someone who doesn’t struggle with severe mental health. Empathizing with her can only get you so far before the realization finally hits: you cannot be everyone’s saviour. 

After months of a broken friendship and a very uncomfortable living situation, it finally dawned on me that I could not be the person my friend needed. I could not fix all her problems without breaking myself apart. No matter how much I offered to help, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves. 

Looking back in hindsight on these situations, the best thing I could have done was to tell other people in her support system about how much she was struggling so her people could rally around her so that I could start to put myself back together. 

You know, the whole metaphor of putting on your oxygen mask first? 2025 is also the year of metaphors, apparently. 

2. Slow the F down.

At one point in your life, you wished you were exactly where you are now. I know it’s cliche to preach about living in the moment and it has sort of fallen down the cultural post-ironic rabbit hole of self-help pyramid schemes, but I hate to admit that it’s true. 

I’ve written about being in my last year of university ad nauseam and the stress and confusion that comes along with finishing your degree, but now at the tail end of my journey I’m struggling to not wish away the time faster. My four years at university have led me down the best of times and the worst of times. I’ve experienced crippling loneliness and academic panic attacks, to finding a community of the most amazing people working at my school's newspaper. It’s been four years of sacrifice and constant lessons learned. At this point, I have my masters in burnout and PHD in “thuggin' it out.” 

And yet, four years ago all I wanted was an independent life where I was in control of my own destiny. Writing here today, I’ve got to live a hundred different lives from then to now and I’ve achieved everything I’ve wanted and then some.

But I am still wishing this chapter away so that I can start my next one. The lust for life has finally returned to me as winter prepares for its grand exit, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to appreciate the hard work I have done these past years to find myself in a place where the future is exciting and full of hope. 

A future that will be here before I know it, and a future that will have me missing this moment right now. Time drags us all forward whether we like it or not, so this year I am learning not to help it take me faster.  

3. Some of the biggest mistakes are the best blessings.

Man, I cannot preach enough about how the things that I once wanted in life but “failed” to achieve turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to me.

An example I’ve also talked about repeatedly in this magazine is my decision to turn down a study abroad opportunity to pursue a job that would ultimately boost my resume in the long run. I grappled a lot with this huge change of plans and even though I loved my job and all the friends I’ve made along the way, I still felt like a failure. That somehow, my 17-year-old self-applying to Trent University solely because of their study abroad program would be utterly disappointed in the choices that I have made. However, because I was brave enough to challenge what I thought was my right path in life and open myself up to other opportunities, I found myself at the centre of a beautiful life of my creation.

The same goes for relationships. I remember spending so much wasted time stressing over boys and picking myself apart when things wouldn't end the way I had hoped. I thought I was a failure, and I thought every failed relationship was somehow a reflection of my self-worth. 

Now, looking back I can’t thank the stars enough that my past flings ended. There isn’t enough money in the world to pay me to go back to that place both mentally and physically all in the hopes of some shred of male validation. Every failed relationship eventually led me to a place of self-love and self-worth that opened me up to the possibility of a real, genuine relationship both with myself and my partner.  

4. Exercise is a good thing, actually.

Growing up I was in almost any and every sport you can imagine. Physical activity was ingrained in me from a very young age to be the most important part of life. It took me years of self-deprecating thoughts that came with competitive sports and a flirtation with an eating disorder to allow myself to step back from the anxiety and pressure to be the best my body would allow, and finally rest. 

The mental health struggles that come with athleticism didn’t just go away when I magically stepped back, but rather manifested into teenage angst and horrible body image that I still struggle with from time to time. One lesson that I have learned in my twenties is that I sort of do like moving my body, actually. Who would have thought!

I’ve learned through trying different workout routines and always having to stop because it turns obsessive very quickly that exercise, when it is done to reach a goal, doesn't work in my brain. Rather, exercise works for me when it is done to appreciate and take care of the body I am so lucky to call home. It took me a long time of trial and error and constant reminders to take it easy on myself to find a routine and workout that not only made me feel good physically, but mentally.

Reshaping my relationship with moving my body has made me an overall happier and calmer person, but it is not without hard mental work. This year as I work to complete a full 365 days of beginning to heal my relationship exercise, it’s a good reminder to take with me that physicality and mentality cannot work if one is over-exhausted. 

5. I am still learning.

Short. Sweet. To the point: I don’t have all the answers but most importantly, I don’t need to have all the answers. I always put so much perfectionism on myself and everything I create that I lose the fun and joy of my career and studies. I always have to be on my A game, which makes me more often than not burnt out and really struggling to crawl my way back to some sense of “productivity.”

It’s exhausting, but realizing that I don’t need to have everything sorted out and don’t have to have all the answers for everything I come across has seriously opened me up to the joy of learning that I somehow lost along my academic journey. 

There is often power to be found in admitting “I don’t know.” Taking the time to learn and allow yourself to listen will make for a transformative and revolutionary 2025.

My Journey With Endometriosis: Your Body Knows Best

by Abbigale Kernya, ​for The 44 North

Managing Editor

Abbigale Kernya is currently an English and Creative Writing student at Trent University and the co-host of Life Outside the Box.

A woman lying in bed on her side. She is curled over with her hand on her neck, as if in pain.

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“I remember lying with my face pressed against the cold tiles on my bathroom floor in agony. One arm wrapped around my abdomen, the other aimlessly scrolling on TikTok as a distraction from the previous vomit I had just cried up and nearly fainted, again, from the level of pain my body was experiencing.”

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I was 18 when I first heard the word “endometriosis”.

I remember lying with my face pressed against the cold tiles on my bathroom floor in agony. One arm wrapped around my abdomen, the other aimlessly scrolling on TikTok as a distraction from the previous vomit I had just cried up and nearly fainted, again, from the level of pain my body was experiencing. 

I also remember telling myself in the moment that I was just being dramatic, that I needed to stop crying, that it was just a bad period.

While I spent my once-a-month “episode” locked in the bathroom the second my period started enduring the worst pain I’ve ever experienced, I decided to search on TikTok “Are bad periods normal?”. The first video under the search flashed a blonde woman with a model of a uterus flashing in red Comic Sans “ENDOMETRIOSIS” across the video. 

I didn’t know there was a word for what I had experienced for years, and I didn’t know it wasn’t normal. 

From then on, I began to understand the very simple notion that periods should not cause paralysis, blackouts, or intense nausea to the point where getting up from the cold bathroom floor with a cocktail of Midol and Naproxen in your system feels equivalent to climbing Mount Everest. Every period following, I would start to voice my concerns that maybe something was wrong with my mother, who also had never heard of the chronic disease before.

Finally, during the end of my first year in university, I went to the ER for what I thought was a burst appendix. Spoiler alert: my appendix is fine, and I was sent home with Advil for some “minor cramps”. 

It felt like no one would listen to me, and at the same time, I didn’t have the vocabulary to voice what was going on. My male family doctor simply saw a young woman who happened to have a painful period and left it at that. I was told time and time again that “some people just get bad periods sometimes” after my voice had gone scratchy from crying and my back spasmed out after hours of hunching over under my covers.

It wasn’t until months after the ER visit that I saw my female nurse practitioner who heard my concerns and suspected endometriosis and started me on birth control—the only known pain reliever for endometriosis next to constant surgery or a hysterectomy—and my life suddenly seemed enjoyable again.

Birth control did make me gain rapid weight and severe acne for the first few months, but I didn’t care at all about any of that. The relief of not having to live every month in survival mode planning around the days you’re going to have to call in sick or miss class because you’ll be otherwise incapacitated was so utterly freeing. Finally getting the help I needed and understanding that my pain was validated and no, I wasn’t just being dramatic, changed my life.

When I turned 20, my advocating paid off and my family doctor agreed to refer me to a gynecologist. I remember sitting in his office hearing the words “Without a doubt in my mind, it’s endometriosis” and again, that same feeling I felt when I started managing my pain came over me again: it wasn’t all in my head.

Now, a year later I’m preparing for a laparoscopic surgery to see how far my endo has progressed and as scary as the results could be, I never thought I would get to this place. I never thought anyone would listen to me, I never thought I would feel comfortable talking about my reproductive health on a public forum, and I never realized how common this disease is.

1 in 10 women suffer from endometriosis, yet it took me 18 years to even learn that it existed. I was never taught about endo in health class, or its cousin Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) in which an estimated 13% of women are diagnosed with an additional 70% of women remaining undiagnosed globally. It became an understanding growing up that sometimes, you just get a bad period and there is nothing you can do about it other than eat ice cream and take an Advil. But as my periods progressed and the pain worsened every month to the point of incapacitation, I still gaslit myself into thinking that I was just “unlucky” with my menstruation. 

During my initial research into severe period cramps and possible causes, my mother told me that “your body knows best” and that pain only happens when something is wrong. Such a simple notion, one that would have saved me so many years in pain had I just trusted my body and listened to it.

At the end of the day, female reproductive health is under researched and underfunded, which trickles down into the lives of young women and girls who suffer the consequences of a fundamental lack of understanding about their own bodies. Why such a common chronic disease is widely unknown and still to some degree, taboo, is a dangerous fault in our society that can only resolve itself by keeping the conversation going. 

Normalizing conversations around pain, periods, and listening to your body is the most important part we can all play to better the stigma around reproductive health to catch problems like mine before they progress and hopefully, before a young girl feels alone in her pain.

Remember, your body knows best and it’s your job to listen to it.