Israelis startup CoBe Labs has created an artificial intelligence-based application to help teens struggling with mental health.

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ChatBot uses teenagers' day-to-day language and fuses it with proven diagnosis and treatment protocols and utilizes cognitive processes used by psychotherapists to collect and analyze data and fuse it with treatment protocols.

ChatBot creates a personalized, authentic conversation and is there to listen, encourage and suggest ways to cope with anxiety and life's stress.

Talking to users via smartphones, ChatBot can immediately help an unlimited number of teenagers, an apparent solution to the growing waitlists to see psychologists. More than one in eight teenagers struggle with their mental health, and roughly 46,000 adolescents commit suicide each year, a global figure that alarmed the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in their annual report.

Speaking with i24NEWS, Dr. Claudia Lang, a senior psychologist and clinical expert who for 10 years led a department dedicated to children and teens, eluded to the rise in the use of social media as the main cause.

"Bullying is something that has been increasing because of social media," Dr. Lang said.

"[Teens] can hurt each other in ways that really hurt their self-esteem and development, and it leads to anxiety, depression, even suicide."

In the case of suicidal thoughts, ChatBot sends an alert to a support unit that immediately gets in touch with the user.

With the aid of Dr. Lang, the Israeli startup CoBe Labs created an easy and accessible outlet for teens in distress – ChatBot, developed by the founders Meir Rafael and Haddas Herzog Manor.

Manor, CEO, and co-founder of CoBe Labs, said, "It's a continuous engagement platform. It learns about you and creates some sort of universe of who you are and what your hobbies are, as well as your current mental state."

Already operating in the United States, CoBe Labs is sparking interest from health organizations and web giants who realize the opportunity to create safer, more positive environments.

i24NEWS contributed to this report. 

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The Health Ministry has begun formulating a first-of-its-kind national emergency plan for children and teens in mental distress, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced Tuesday at the Israel Hayom mental resilience conference in Tel Aviv. 

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The move comes against the backdrop of a sharp increase in referrals for kids and youngsters to mental health services, including psychiatric clinics, a number that according to unofficial data from health maintenance organizations spiked by 40% since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Horowitz said the plan would be presented to the government in the near future and would be implemented by the health, education and welfare and social affairs ministries.

Israel Hayom found out from sources involved in the matter that measures would include the establishment of mental health services that do not yet exist in Israel, such as ten crisis prevention centers that will provide primary care to children in urgent need.

According to sources, the project is the initiative of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Association and can launch immediately in cooperation with hospitals and health funds. It will include grants and scholarships to child psychiatrists and psychologists, additional funding to HMOs, and increased cooperation with youth movements, whose counselors will be trained to identify the warning signs of mental illness and suicide.

Dr. Zvi Fishel, Chairman of the Israel Psychiatric Association, welcomed the announcement.

"The unavailability of psychiatrists and other caregivers leads to unbearably long queues. It is crucial to allocate an adequate budget that will bring new employees and keep the young professional psychiatrists in the public system. The promises and plans of the Health Ministry must be implemented in order to bring a cure for the severe mental distress in children, teens, and also adults."

Professor Doron Gothelf, director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit at Sheba Medical Center, concurred.

"The past year has seen a sharp increase in the mental distress of children and youngsters in Israel and worldwide. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has already declared a state of emergency and a report by the Elem association [that works with at-risk youth] showed that depression, anxiety, eating disorders, victims of violence, and alcohol and drug use among teens increased 2-5 times in the last quarter of 2020, compared to the same period of time in 2019.

"As a result, the number of urgent referrals to emergency rooms due to suicide, anxiety, and eating disorders increased between 50-100%. Many of the teens require psychiatric hospitalization, and as such, the rate of psychiatric hospitalizations in youth wards has increased significantly this year, and it is very difficult to find a vacant bed," he said.

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In an open letter to Virginia Gamba, the UN Under Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict, Danon wrote, "Rina Shnerb had just celebrated her 17^th birthday a week prior to the incident."

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Danon said that Shnerb was walking to the spring, when a concealed roadside bomb hidden by terrorists detonated, killing her.

Danon pointed out that Shnerb was murdered only days after Dvir Sorek, 18, was stabbed to death by terrorists.

"Israel is extremely concerned about the growing trend of violent and murderous acts by Palestinian terrorists that … target Israeli children," Danon wrote to Gamba, adding that terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad glorified such attacks.

After the news of Shnerb's death, Hamas lauded the attack, saying that it was a response to Israel's "aggression."

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh issued a statement saying the attack was "proof of the vitality and courage of the Palestinian people, who will not surrender to the crimes of the occupation."

He called the attack "a heroic act."

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