A digital platform at the heart of society

MIND

About MIND

The MIND Foundation wants to promote mental health and support everyone affected by it. As an independent social organisation, they are fighting for a society that invests in mental health and does everything to prevent unnecessary psychological suffering. MIND gives a voice to all people with (early) mental health problems and their loved ones, offering information, advice and support - online, by phone and everywhere in the country. So that no one is alone.

Harborn has been a social partner of the MIND Foundation since 2016. We strongly believe in the network organisation formed by MIND and the importance of good information online. That’s why Harborn has helped MIND to develop a powerful digital platform that is managed and made findable by a host of digital editors.

The challenge

Almost 40 per cent of Dutch people suffer from psychological problems in their lifetime. Unfortunately, the information provided on this subject was very fragmented and hard to find. The MIND Foundation was established with financial support from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Since the start of organising MIND, the mission has been to prevent mental health problems as well as support people having to deal with them.

Harborn's team developed a powerful concept, working with colleagues from MIND. Naturally, we did this in close consultation with the end users. Methodically, we used multiple user tests, research, panel discussions and design sprints. Based on a one-platform concept, we chose to develop several sub-portals. All the portals have their own editors, and the content and design are aimed at maximum findability with Google. As a result, in a few short years, the portal has become the market leader for mental health information in the Netherlands.

Technology & partnerships

Sulu
Symfony
PHP
Elasticsearch
Pegamento
AWS Cloud Hosting

Woman with a burnout with her hands in front of her face,

From searching to finding

The MIND Foundation website is there for every target group, with the aim of connecting users with each other and making the fragmented information available in one place. The six different portals on the website give the user easy navigation, depending on their needs, from addiction to depression and from gloom to advocacy.

We Are MIND. General portal for mental health issues.
MIND Young. The platform about your MIND for and by young people with a unique editorial team of young people.
MIND Blue. All about gloom and depression.
MIND Korrelatie. Direct help, formerly known as the Korrelatie Foundation.
MIND Addiction. Everything about addiction and recovery.
MIND Platform. Focused on advocacy.

Queen Maxima with two other women on the couch

Solution and technology

Earlier, we mentioned that the website is extremely well indexed and found in the Google search engine. This is especially important for the target group of the MIND Foundation, as they seek refuge in the information that is available online. The fact that this information is correct is sometimes even vital.

We also applied a number of techniques, such as the algorithm that allows texts on each sub-platform to exactly match with the user’s needs. In addition, we used the powerful Elasticsearch in combination with AWS Cloud for the search engine in MIND. The latter scales seamlessly when there are large numbers of visitors. For example, a broadcast of the hospital series, CMC, on RTL4 about depression - for which MIND provided content and context - suddenly generated 10,000 requests per minute to take an online depression test on MIND Blue. At such times, you have to be 100% confident that everything will keep running.

Conclusion

Not just a website, but a real digital platform with an enormous reach. Not just consumers looking for information, but increasingly, also the professional service provider who wants to exchange knowledge with professional peers. We are proud to be a social partner of the MIND Foundation. In this capacity, we are also responsible for the platform “Choosing in the GGZ”(Mental Health Care Sector): see website: www.kiezenindeggz.nl.

SEO score

Ferdinando

Commercial Director

Also need a growth-proof solution?

Does this case make you want to seriously take things in hand? Harborn helps your company with what matters to you. Whether it’s e-commerce, an online portal or a mobile app, we get to the heart of the matter. Using, for example, focus sprints, we build solutions together with your team. So, what are you waiting for? Contact Ferdinando now! He’s the project lead of this case.

+316 1368 1514 ferdinando.vandepanne@harborn.com