Eden Care Founder Mukundi presents ProActiv
Eden Care Medical, a leading digital health insurer, has unveiled “ProActiv” a comprehensive service that will provide a new mental wellness and non-communicable disease (NCD) preventative approach to enable Rwanda to increase its human resources productivity.
The product, the first of its kind on the local insurance market was launched this September 21, 2023. It is a result of a Human Resources survey conducted by Eden Care, that showed a high demand for mental and physical wellness for many employees.
For instance, the research showed that 70% of employees at risk of chronic mental health challenges and NCDs like diabetes are the highest in the public sector.
The 2018 Rwanda Mental Health Survey found that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is eight-fold more prevalent among Genocide survivors compared to the general population (27.9% vs 3.6%).
The research also shows PTSD as the second leading cause of mental disorders behind depression (35.0 %) and at least one of five Rwandans have a mental health condition.
ProActiv has a wide range of benefits that includes wellness evaluations, fitness assessments, mental health exams, and counseling; biomarker evaluations and screening courses for NCDs among many others in the product programs.
“Normally you would have these services on one’s insurance policy,” said Moses Mukundi, Eden Care’s Founder.
Mukundi said that ProActiv Service is available to individuals and groups and also recommended for companies’ human resources management to improve their productivity.
For example, with investing in early detection- every one dollar has a saving of 13 dollars (return on income) annually.
Eden Care Medical says that the advantages of the ProActiv Service include better health and well-being:
For instance, the service assists people in identifying and managing health concerns, as well as making lifestyle adjustments to improve their overall well-being.
Lower healthcare expenses: By assisting people in staying healthy, the service may help to lower healthcare expenditures in the long run; increased productivity and employee engagement- that is employees that are healthy and happy are more productive and engaged.
Also for a better company culture where this service can aid in the development of a company culture that emphasizes health and well-being.
“It is a good option for people who are looking to improve their overall health and well-being, identify and manage their health risks, or make lifestyle changes. But for Human resource the benefits are greater as a company can be assured of a health staff,” Moses Mukundi said.
As the insurance industry evolves, technology is becoming increasingly vital in areas such as client engagement, data analysis, and risk assessment. Eden Care ProActiv is an excellent example of how technology may be used to build a more customer-centric and efficient insurance environment.
Kevin Rudahinduka, the new Eden Care CEO said that smartphone penetration in Rwanda is increasing but there is also a need to connect to the elderly however keeping in mind the human interaction aspect.
“We need to work on increasing access to devices through partnerships,” Rudahinduka said.
We need to take good care of our health so that we can make money and to have everything around us healthy”.
Rudahinduka explained that it has been proven that when you get financial benefits to take care of your health, they do more. That is why Eden Care has solicited several partnerships where their members can get health benefits.
For instance, Rudahinduka said that every health exercise done can earn ProActiv subscriber’s points that can be translated into offers from their partners such as Waka Waka gym workouts, and Java House diet meals among others.
Eden Care Founder Mukundi presents ProActiv
Kyla -Rei Mulligan, the Head of People & Culture at Eden Care Medical stated that the bigger sustainable plan is to create a culture of awareness on health that helps Rwandans to think differently about their health.
“Doctors have held enough power to decide on our health decision, so what we are doing now is to reduce that and have the patients in charge of their health to prevent the next heart attack,” Mulligan said.
Eden Care officials also stated that they are looking at creating more job and business opportunities for service providers and innovators in line with the ProActiv Services but also sustainably engage the community in Kigali and in the countryside.
ProActiv Service user enthusiasts like Rachel Irakoze, the Operations and customer relations at The Mental Health Hub said that the Rwandan culture does not give an opportunity to talk about mental health but the coming of this service is a new opportunity which will open many doors of which many in need of private counseling services can easily access.
Eden Care Founder Mukundi stated that all patient’s data, assessments and progress (especially in mental health wellness) will remain private and only accessible by the patient and not their Human Resources managers even when the services are paid for by the employers.
Individuals and groups can subscribe to the Eden Care ProActiv Services by visiting the Eden Care website or download their application.
Uptake of this service is expected to respond to the shortcomings in access to mental health services as raised in the Auditor General’s performance audit report 2018-2022 of which Parliament has tasked RBC to respond to.
