ABOUT US
Assisted Self-Help creates solutions and technologies with societal benefit in health, research and education. Our passion is to develop simpler and more effective solutions for the treatment of mental disorders. Our goal is to increase society's ability to provide early mental health care.
HOW ASSISTED SELF-HELP BECAME BORN
Oskar Blakstad, Psychologist and Entrepreneur
The idea for Assisted Self-Help came about while I was working as a psychologist at DPS. Every day I saw how long wait times and limited capacity affected patients, and I wanted to be able to offer something meaningful in the meantime. With experience from Explorable.com – a website I developed to make research accessible and understandable to the general public – I began to see how technology could also be used in the same way in mental health care.
We started with introductory seminars for patients waiting for treatment. It quickly became clear how much this could mean – many gained a new sense of control and mastery even before treatment had started. That’s when I realized that technology could bridge the gap between the wait and the treatment – and in some cases even speed up recovery. In 2012, I made the big decision to quit my job to pursue the idea, at a time when digital solutions within mental health were still in their infancy. It took almost four years before we were able to launch the first tools, in collaboration with Rask Psykisk Helsehjelp in Kristiansand, Kristiansund and Molde. An early highlight came when Assistert Selvhjelp awarded “Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2018” by FERD. Today, Assistert Selvhjelp is an established health service in municipalities across the country. Over 2,500 practitioners have access to our solutions, and almost 30,000 residents use them every year.
Assisted Self-Help empowers ordinary people to take an active role in their own recovery, while relieving the burden on the healthcare system. It has been a long and educational journey, with one clear goal: to create solutions that really make a difference.
WHO ARE WE?
Oskar BlakstadCTO
Oskar Blakstad is a clinical psychologist and serial entrepreneur. He is an Ashoka fellow, an award for entrepreneurship with societal benefits in focus.
Oscar previously founded Explorable.com, a research website for students that has had over 100 million visitors since 2008. He has led a number of projects with the development and operation of technology and integration. Oskar is co-founder and board member of the Psychologists' Association for Digital Health (Digpsyk.no), which is a sub-association of the Norwegian Psychological Association.
Andreas EidemCEO
Andreas Eidem is CEO of Assisted Self-Help. He has extensive experience in management and project implementation in both public and non-profit organizations.
Andreas has over ten years of experience from the Mental Health Clinic at Sørlandet Hospital. He also led the establishment of the chat service Talkbullying.no.
He has a strong commitment to simplify the everyday lives of professionals. Mental health and digitalization are not just a job for Andreas – they are also his passion.
Pål Fylling Helland
CCO
Pål Fylling Helland is the responsible psychologist specialist in Assisted Self-Help.He possesses extensive experience both as a clinical psychologist, as well as with project management for the Blue Cross and Healthy Specialist. within e-health.
Paul has extensive experience as a course leader in motivational interviewing (MI) and has further education in group therapy.
He shows great commitment to using e-health tools in make everyday-life easier for health professionals, who in turn are able to provide better help to more people.
