World’s Most Comprehensive Online Mental Health Assessment Launched To Help Struggling Kiwis

New Zealand company, Loffty.com has launched the world’s most comprehensive online mental health assessment tool for struggling Kiwis who want to work with their General Practitioner to improve their mental health.

By providing GPs with much richer information about their mental health symptoms, Loffty helps Kiwis receive more accurate and timely diagnoses and get on the correct treatment pathways, resulting in better mental health outcomes.

“With one in five people affected by mental illness, and mental distress increasing due to Covid-19, it is really important for Kiwis to book a mental health check-up with their GP,” says Loffty Co-founder and CEO, Marshall Couper.

“But 10 minute long consultations are not enough for a GP to get the full picture of a person’s mental health. Compared with a physical check-up, mental health requires more time. Loffty solves this problem by enabling a person to complete their comprehensive Loffty assessment online, in their own time, anywhere. The report goes to their GP who will now have a lot more information as an aid to diagnosis and treatment.”

Unlike single-disorder tests that GPs traditionally use to assess, for example, just depression or just anxiety or free quizzes people find online, Loffty is a ‘multi-condition’ or ‘multi-disorder’ assessment covering 30 of the most common mental health disorders. These include major depression, generalised anxiety, bipolar, post-traumatic stress (PTSD), postnatal depression, alcohol dependence and abuse, adult ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders and phobias.

Globally recognised suicide prevention, public health expert and Loffty advisor, Professor Luke Larkin, is currently based in New York witnessing the mental health impact of Covid-19 first-hand. He says, “True wellbeing starts with awareness, so it is vitally important we don’t just assess for depression when mental health is far more complex than that. Just asking ‘Am I depressed?’ is not enough. Loffty is a paradigm changing aid that gives voice to the silent suffering of our patients and GPs the ability to hear that voice."

While the company recently moved its headquarters to New Zealand to focus on improving the mental health of Kiwis, Loffty's assessment has been used successfully for over 10 years by GPs in Australia where it is accepted as a decision support tool for GP Medicare rebate purposes.

Chris Mulroney, Clinical Director at One Point Medical, a GP practice in Melbourne, explains, “Loffty gives me a comprehensive view of what is affecting my patients’ state of mind in an easily digestible format that I can review in 30 seconds before the consultation. I then ask follow-up questions and make a formal diagnosis. Loffty is especially useful during these Covid-challenged times when I have a waiting list of patients. It’s also the perfect companion to my telehealth consultations.”

Marshall Couper adds, “Feedback from Australian customers shows that Loffty has transformed lives - these people are now thriving. We look forward to Loffty having the same positive impact on Kiwis.”

ABOUT LOFFTY

Loffty is the world’s most comprehensive online mental health assessment tool that enables New Zealanders to work much more effectively with their General Practitioner to improve their mental health. Loffty was founded by New Zealand social impact innovator, Marshall Couper, who is changing the way people access evidence-based wellbeing solutions. The Loffty team is backed by an advisory team made up of physicians, research scientists, health economists, academics and technology experts from Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

Loffty will save New Zealanders time, money and inconvenience because it collects the same amount of data that would take a GP 90 minutes to collect. People can access the assessment at www.Loffty.com and at the special price of $19 during Mental Health Awareness Week until 31 October 2020.

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