APEC (Psychological Support at Home, Apoyo Psicológico en Casa in Spanish) is a social enterprise that intends to change the way we understand psychology. APEC is aware of the increasingly demanding population´s mental-health needs, and therefore wants to provide patients with an integral psychological service at home at an affordable price. This drastically reduces the time restriction while providing psychological treatment with greater accessibility.
However, it is a much larger project focused on building a whole new approach to psychology by involving several actors. On one hand, and taking into account that APEC’S founders beliefs that “Psychology can be a very solitary career”, they want to provide the patients with support both from the psychologist and an external coordinator, who can give an external point of view if needed while creating a network through which all of them can communicate ina personalized way. On the other hand, they also want to coordinate their efforts with other professionals related to the patient, such as schoolteachers and psychiatrists, who can help them follow the patient’s pharmacological treatment.
Founded in 2012 by psychologists Natalia Zaira Pedrajas Sanz and Carla Rodríguez Caballer, APEC is also firmly committed to creating job opportunities for Spanish psychologists, serving as a real platform where those psychologists looking for a job can find resources and support. Their business model is based on a novel monthly bonus system, which makes the service more affordable for their patients. This system also adds regularity and continuity to the treatment, helping patients engage better in the therapy.
FUTURE PLANS
They launched their company with 10,000€, and later invested 100,000€ intended to cover their marketing and technological needs in order to automatize processes. “That would allow us to grow in an organized and more efficient way, benefitting patients and psychologists,” Natalia and Carla say.
Although they are now only present in Spain, APEC’S founders have ambitious expansion plans and intend to launch their company in the Latin American region next year.