MENTAL health has been the number one health topic coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NHS says that one-in-four adults and one-in-10 children will experience some form of mental illness during their lifetime, but finding the right help can often be elusive for a variety of reasons.
Danny Gray, the entrepreneur who set up the men’s makeup brand War Paint, and a former head of contract hire and daily rental at Tusker, has created JAAQ to assist with public information on mental health.
JAAQ – or Just Ask A Question – uses ‘In the Room’ technology that recreates the experience of a unique face-to-face encounter. Using voice recognition, AI, and exclusive video content, it empowers key luminaries of any sector to be ‘in the room’ with each member of their audience so they can answer questions, on demand, at any time.
The experts talking about Depression are Professor Paul Gilbert OBE and former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell; on the issues of Psychosis are Dr Erin Turner and actor David Harewood; while tackling Body Dysmorphic Disorder are Professor David Veale and Danny Gray.
Currently JAAQ is based in the War Paint retail outlet in Carnaby Street, London, where there is a private room where visitors can ask questions about their mental health issues in complete privacy using the ‘In the Room’ technology.
But now, thanks to the support of Synergy Car Leasing, JAAQ can provide help to a wider audience with a Mercedes Sprinter van that has been kitted out to replicate the War Paint ‘pod’.
Accessing information from reliable and confidential sources is crucial when trying to understand an illness. Once you understand it, you can start to deal with it. Danny’s vision is to change the world of mental health, one question at a time. It seemed a great idea to provide JAAQ with a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter to allow people across the country to benefit from their unique, immersive experience to answer their questions on mental health. With so many people suffering with mental health issues following the pandemic it was a really worthy cause to support. It’s great to be behind Danny and JAAQ.
Paul Parkinson, CEO and founder, Synergy Car Leasing
JAAQ will add to the mental health disorders it covers soon with experts on Anxiety, Eating Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Mental Health In Sport.
Ahead of the World Mental Health Day held on 10 October 2021, the World Health Organization published a report finding that the world had missed most 2020 health targets, and called the findings “disappointing”.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, commented:
“It is extremely concerning that, despite the evident and increasing need for mental health services, which has become even more acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, good intentions are not being met with investment. We must heed and act on this wake-up call and dramatically accelerate the scale-up of investment in mental health, because there is no health without mental health.”
Watch Danny Gray demonstrate the new Synergy-supplied JAAQ van
Click here for the JAAQ van video.
Ralph Morton is the leading journalist in the leasing broker sector and editor of Broker News, the website which provides information and news for BVRLA-registered leasing brokers. He also writes extensively on the fleet and leasing market in both the UK and Europe.
