Ride-Hailing App Tackles Mental Health in Ambitious Work With BETC Paris

Mar. 29, 2024

Heetch and BETC Paris launch "First Conversation" in partnership with the Foundation Falret, and bring psychologists and mental health ambassadors on board in Heetch ride-sharing cars to raise awareness among young people about mental health issues.

"Depression is for the weak"

Yet in 2024, 1 in 5 young people suffer from depressive disorders. However, for them, the subject of mental health is taboo:

French rapper Orelsan to Yard/Vice back in 2017 explained:

"We all have a bit of this complex about therapists, it's not always well seen to go to them."

 

And while initiatives to break the silence are multiplying, popular culture continues to perpetuate stereotypes and keep young people silent. These young people, the drivers of the Heetch ride-sharing brand, encounter them every day: they pick them up from parties and take them to work on tough days. And sometimes these young people, especially those from disadvantaged neighborhoods, need to confide:

Karim, driver for Heetch since 2019, said:

"We listen to them and the dialogue is created quite easily, we feel that they want to talk without feeling judged. Perhaps knowing that we are focused on the road and cannot look at them directly helps them feel more comfortable talking to us about their lives and their problems."

 

Renaud Berthe, CMO at Heetch explained:

"When we saw all the testimonials from young people on social media saying that they tended to confide in our drivers, we thought with our agency BETC that we should take advantage of this dialogue that was naturally taking place and the fact that 70% of our users are under 30 to take it one step further: if young people don't go to therapists, then we'll bring therapists to them."

 

That’s why Heetch, on an idea from its agency BETC, partners with the Foundation Falret – committed to the French mental health since 1841 – to launch "First Conversation": a concrete initiative to raise awareness among young people about mental health issues and promote the liberation of speech.

From March 28 to 31, 2024, psychologists and mental health ambassadors from the Foundation Falret will board Heetch ride-sharing cars and accompany young people so they can have a first contact with a professional during a ride.

Sandrine Broutin, CEO of the Foundation Falret explained:

"Today, the average duration of diagnostic wandering is about 10 years, and the later the care is provided, the longer the path to recovery will be. Destigmatizing, promoting early detection of young people, and guiding them is what we want to convey to young people."

 

Olivier Aumard, Executive Creative Director at BETC said:

"Since Covid and successive lockdowns, the mental health of young people has become a subject the media talks about, but it is difficult to provide concrete solutions to. With First Conversation, Heetch is implementing a real, useful service that, beyond the presence of psychologists, will be long-lasting with the training of drivers in active listening."

 

And while these moments of exchange aboard a ride-sharing car will never replace consultations in a therapist's office as part of therapy, the goal is to raise awareness among young people about mental health issues and, above all, the necessity of speaking up when not feeling well.

The first step towards awareness and the normalization of an act that young people often tend to dramatize.