About

Rethink Wellbeing offers proven, engaging and affordable programs to nurture mental wellbeing and resilience at scale. Rethink Wellbeing acts as an impact multiplier: their programs are specially designed to help ambitiously altruistic individuals feel and perform better, supercharging their ability to do good in the world.

History

Rethink Wellbeing was founded in early 2022 by Dr Inga Grossman^[1], together with a team of four. It was the most promising of three mental health-related project ideas that the team tested. In its first year, Rethink Wellbeing successfully piloted its first flagship program, the CBT Lab, indicating effectiveness and demand within the target group. They are now focused on scaling their services to reach more ambitious altruists and further increase their cost-effectiveness. 

As of October 2024, Rethink Wellbeing has supported over 200 ambitious altruists. They still have four employees in the core team and a network of 50+ volunteers and advisors^[2].

Activities

Rethink Wellbeing facilitates 8-16-week guided online mental health programs for ambitious altruists, including The CBT Lab and The IFS Lab–both group-based peer support formats guided by trained laypeople. In each program, participants learn to apply evidence-based psychotherapeutic and behaviour change methods to improve their mental wellbeing and thereby their productivity.

Theory of Change

~10% of money and time invested in EA is lost to poor mental health:

• An estimated 1 in 3 ambitious altruists experience poor mental health.
• Many ambitious altruists work in demanding roles and are at higher risk of burnout, perfectionism, lack of self-care, anxiety and hopelessness.
• Poor mental health has been shown to drive a large and likely linear loss in productivity, e.g. 35% for depression.
• Estimating 10,000 EA members, we lose ~2.4 Mio productive hours yearly (~1,200 full-time equivalents).

Evaluation

Rethink Wellbeing publishes its research into the effectiveness of each program on its website on a rolling basis.

Based on the 2023 program study, participants in Rethink Wellbeing’s CBT Lab increased their productivity by ~5-9 hours per week and decreased their mental health burden (including symptoms of depression and anxiety) by ~16-28%^[3].

Effectiveness research using standardized self-assessments is run for every cohort to:

1. Assess the effectiveness of the different program versions by measuring and comparing aspects of wellbeing before and after implementation
2. Estimate cost-effectiveness, and benchmark against other mental health programs

The research is longitudinal and employs gold-standard methods used in clinical trials where possible. 

Further Reading

Our World in Data, Mental Health research

EA Mental Health and Productivity Survey 2023, RW & MHN.

External Links

Rethink Wellbeing (official website)

Donate to Rethink Wellbeing

1. ^{^}

   Inga is also the Co-Founder and Team Lead for High Impact Psychology

2. ^{^}

   Our Team — Rethink Wellbeing

3. ^{^}

   2023 CBT Lab Effectiveness Results; CEA BOTEC