Alongside vs Dr. Riya by Mindtalk

Alongside is a wellness platform for K–12 schools, founded in 2022, with self-guided tools and clinician-built coaching chats. Its student service is designed for grades 4–12, while Alongside for Educators offers self-help resources for faculty and staff. Students can chat confidentially about challenges 24/7 and receive clinically informed techniques drawing on CBT, DBT, ACT and mindfulness. They can track moods, set goals, journal, watch mindfulness and social-skills videos, and complete personalized exercises covering more than 50 common issues, including friendships, self-esteem and anxiety. Schools can add universal mental health screeners and social-emotional competency assessments, and school and district dashboards report usage and student concerns. For detected suicidal ideation risk, the described response can involve a standard assessment, connection to 988, notification of school personnel and safety planning. Alongside says AI is not used for universal screening or crisis-severity assessment. It is available in a browser and through iOS and Android apps. The service is self-help, not therapy, medical advice, treatment or a crisis service; screening does not provide a diagnosis.

Dr. Riya is an AI mental health guide in the Mindtalk app. It explains WHO-5, PHQ-9 and other screening results in plain language, then suggests a guided journey, journal or human specialist based on assessments and how a user feels. It can help users organise topics for a therapist session and track mood, sleep and journal records between appointments. The wider app lists 99 clinically validated assessments, 100+ worksheets, 18 guided journeys, 26 journals and 155+ guided audio sessions. Mindtalk describes the app as self-help for general wellbeing, mild-to-moderate anxiety and low mood, sleep improvement, stress management and mental-health habits. Users can book a Mindtalk psychiatrist or clinical psychologist in the app and choose to share assessment scores and worksheet responses with a therapist. Mindtalk says account information is encrypted, not sold and private unless the user explicitly permits sharing. The free plan is free on Android, iOS and web. Dr. Riya does not diagnose, prescribe, provide therapy or offer emergency or crisis support.