Mental health is just as important as your physical health. You cannot have health without mental health.
1 in 5 Canadians are affected by a mental health condition. 1 in 3 people experience a mental health issue at some point in life. Mental health not only has an impact on the mind and its ability to function, but it also has a physically impact on the brain. Without treatment, your brain can experience physical shrinkage and damage over time.
Mental health is important to ensure your well-being and that you are functioning at your very best. It impacts every aspect of your life – your productivity at work, your relationships with family, colleagues and friends. It can change your outlook on life and affect your daily functions such as sleep, concentration, motivation, and ability to handle problems.
Privacy Policy Statement
Mensante Corporation is committed to protecting your privacy when using the FeelingBetterNow® (FBN) website. We adhere to the Canadian government’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA"), which sets out how personal information is to be protected using the ten privacy principles of the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information (www.scc.ca) that have been adopted by all provincial and territorial privacy legislation. The federal Act can be viewed here: (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-8.6/index.html).
FBN does not collect any personally identifying information such as your name, gender, age, or home/business address. While FBN is completely anonymous, you have the option to use your email address for password recovery purposes, to receive follow-up reminders, or become eligible for prizes.
To further protect your privacy, as with any password, we recommend you use a strong password such as at least 8 characters including, a capital letter and a number. We recommend not using anything that identifies you such as your name, birthday, address and the like.
We adhere to the following ten privacy principles mentioned above:
- Accountability: Mensante is accountable for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of all personal information under its custody and control. Mensante has appointed an individual who is responsible for ensuring its compliance with the following Privacy Principles.
- Identifying Purposes: The purposes for which you enter your personal information is to enable the FBN tool to provide you with feedback based upon the answers you provide to the Diagnostic Risk Assessment questions asked. Upon request, we will provide Aggregate Data Reports to the organizations that purchased the FBN service (see Principle 5).
- Consent: By agreeing to use the FBN website terms and conditions and privacy policy statement, you are consenting to the collection of your personal information for the purposes of providing you with feedback on your responses to the answers you provide when you use the FBN Diagnostic Risk Assessment tool(s). You are also consenting to permit Mensante to provide your organization with Aggregate reports on members’, employees’, insureds’ or students’ use of the FBN website and Diagnostic Risk Assessment tools. “Aggregate Data” is defined in 5 below.
- Limiting Collection: The only personal information that is collected by Mensante is that which you provide when you enter your responses to the FBN Assessment. We also collect your User Name and password for purposes of allowing you to log back into the website. We only collect your email address should you choose to provide it as part of the password recovery process or to enable us to send you reminders to revisit the FBN website, or be eligible for a prize.
- Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention: Upon request, Mensante will provide Aggregate Data Reports to our customer organizations on its employees’, insureds’, members’ or students’ use of the FBN website. “Aggregate Data” means information such as the total number of individuals from the organization who used the FBN website and completed the Diagnostic Risk Assessments. None of the personal information entered into the Diagnostic Risk Assessments is ever disclosed to anyone. We never sell any personal information under our custody or control. We retain your personal information only as long as we need to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected.
- Accuracy: The accuracy of the personal information you enter into the FBN Diagnostic Risk Assessment tools is maintained unchanged until such time as you choose to change it by returning to the FBN website and re-using the tools.
- Safeguards: We ensure the confidentiality of your personal information by storing your information in a secure data centre on secure servers with access limited to a limited number of authorized persons for the purposes of maintenance of the database. See “Website Use” below for additional security information.
- Openness: Upon request, Mensante will provide you with a copy of our privacy policy and procedures that pertain to the management of personal information.
- Individual Access: You may return to and use the FBN website as often as you choose.
- Challenging Compliance: You may contact Mensante’s privacy officer at any time should you wish to register a compliant or concern about Mensante’s privacy practices. This person can be contacted at 416-928-9195.
Website Use
As you use FBN, we may also collect non-identifiable information through the use of commonly-used information-gathering tools, such as cookies. A cookie is a piece of data that a website can send to the browsers of visitors’ computers and that may then be stored on the hard drives of their computers. The goal is to improve efficiency and effectiveness and to measure Website activity. Certain login information may be maintained in a cookie stored locally on your personal computing device (i.e. not on a server) in order to streamline the login process. There are no cookies tracking your browsing history outside of the FeelingBetterNow website itself, or your location, activity, social networking and the like. Other information collected may include standard information regarding your web-connected device, web browser type, browser language, Operating System, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, and the actions you take on our web site (such as the web pages viewed and the links clicked).
When Exiting the Website
The FeelingBetterNow® website contains links to other related information websites and mobile applications (“apps”). If you visit a link for another site or app, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site or app.
Safeguards
The measures Mensante Corporation takes to ensure the security of personal information include:
- Physical security of our premises and the Data Center.
- CSAE 3416-compliant third part assurance standards.
- Restriction of staff access to files on a "need to know" basis.
- Undertakings by all staff to comply with our policy.
- Deployment of technological safeguards like security software, encryption and firewalls to prevent hacking or unauthorized computer access.
- Internal password and security policies.
- Regular audits of our procedures and measures to ensure that they are properly administered and that they remain effective and appropriate.
Updates to this Privacy Policy
Mensante Corporation reserves the right to update this privacy policy at any time.
FeelingBetterNow®(FBN) is a mental health hub and comprehensive guidance system personalized for you. FBN offers you Gold Standard Assessments which immediately link to your Personalized evidence-based Action Plan and Tool Box for self help and/or collaborative care with a mental health professional. FBN is built on a prevention framework to assist in early identification, triage you to the right care at the right time be it self-care and/or collaborative care. It connects you to your organization’s resources so that your complete mental health support network is available in one place.
FeelingBetterNow®(FBN) is provided as a benefit to you by your organization, including your employer, insurer, union, university, college, or hospital. Check your organization’s intranet to see if FBN is available for you.
If you are eligible, your family members also have access to FBN.
FeelingBetterNow® includes all evidence-based e-mental health care practices and augment traditional in-person care. We research all e-mental health tools currently available and we can assure you there is no comparable tool in the market.
- You access FBN anonymously. It is a safe haven for you to early identify your symptoms, triggers, and your level of risk for a mental health concern.
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- FBN Offers a comprehensive approach to your mental health care: it is a comprehensive online tool covering 95% of the most common mental health conditions affecting Canadians.
- Easy access. You can use it anytime and anywhere on your computer, tablet or smart phone.
- The Assessment provides you with an unbiased analysis of your mental health. Most assessments pre-judge that you may have a specific mental health problem and assess for only that problem.
- Assessments are based on gold standards of diagnosis and treatment. It identifies your risk level (low, medium, high) for mental health disorders. FBN does not diagnose or treat. Only your mental healthcare provider can do that.
- Assessments alone are not enough. Immediately after completing your Assessment you receive your Personalized Action Plan. You are not left hanging as to what you should do next. Your plan is tailored specifically to meet your needs. It includes a Tool Box for self-help and/or collaborative care with the right mental health professional.
- Your Toolbox promotes your engagement and allows you to take a leading role in your mental health. It contains tools for self-help including expert-curated resources for online cognitive behavioral therapy, stress reduction, apps, how to support others, how to navigate the system, what triggers and symptoms you should look for and general education about mental health.
- The Assessment helps your mental health professionals provide you with gold standard diagnosis and treatment and best practice outcomes.
- It addresses co-morbidity with physical and mental health issues.
- FBN is customized to connect you to your organization’s Resources.
Visit our Features section to learn more!
On average, an assessment can take from 5 to 20 minutes to complete, depending on the number of concerns identified in the assessment. The assessment has a progress bar and users can pause and return to complete the assessment at another time.
Request a Demo today!
FeelingBetterNow® was developed by leading mental health experts, including family physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, academics, and social workers. These experts review the site and update regularly.
Visit Our Mental Health Care Professional Advisory Board to learn more about our Team!
CEO Dr. Sam Ozersky, A.B., MD, FRCP(C), received the Community Based Innovation Award in 2008 for developing FeelingBetterNow®.
The College of Family Physicians of Canada has reviewed and approved FeelingBetterNow
® as a practice management tool available to assist family physicians in patient care.
In 2016, the Mental Health Commission of Canada provided a letter of Excellence, for “FeelingBetterNow ® stating it “is a made-in-Canada innovation in e-Mental Health focused on addressing gaps in the sphere of workplace mental health. Congratulations on this excellent initiative.”
Visit Our Story to learn more!
It is mobile-friendly and can be accessed from your smart phone, tablet or computer device anywhere, anytime. You can return as often as you want to use your Toolbox, Resources, and/or re-assess, and compare your assessment responses and risk level.
It complies with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities (AODA) Act to ensure accessibility for all users.
It is available in both French and English.
You access FBN anonymously by creating your own username and password. Neither Mensante nor your organization connect your Assessment information to you.
FeelingBetterNow® is compliant with the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
We adhere to the latest standards and utilize the latest technology for encrypting account information. The servers are maintained in a 24-hour secured location.
Any reporting to your organization is anonymized and aggregated.
FeelingBetterNow®(FBN) has been available to users since 2006. Over the next 9 years, we gathered user feedback, conducted research, and learned from our experience. In 2015, we utilized state of the art technology, made the site more user friendly, and enhanced the content and scope of FBN.
Today, FBN is available to over 1 million Canadians. Our customers include universities and colleges, insurers, unions, hospitals, and corporations. We have an over 90% contract renewal rate.
Our team is always here for you. If you have questions, please contact
[email protected].