How an app helps people in mourning

Former scholarship holders Daniel Bachmann and Aenis Chebil are co-founders of grievy, an app for people in mourning. The original idea came from the third in the group, co-founder Nele Stadtbäumer, who would have liked more support options in times of her own grief. The doctoral candidate took her idea to a practical event organised by UAS professors Christian Drumm and Matthias Eggert, in which interdisciplinary projects in the field of business informatics are developed. Here she won over Bachmann and Chebil for the project and grievy was "born". After the project was completed, all three realised that they wanted to continue, so the GmbH was founded two years later. In addition to the interdisciplinary project, there was further support from then on, for example from the FH Aachen Startup Center or the digitalHUB. "But the experience from the FH scholarship programme also helped. Especially the opportunity to work in different areas of the sponsoring company," reports Bachmann. Here he was able to deepen the knowledge of corporate strategy, innovation and product management that he had learnt during his studies.

Taking death and grief out of the taboo zone

"We want to support bereaved people who have had a similar experience to ours," says Daniel Bachmann, who, like Nele Stadtbäumer, was unable to find a suitable offer of help after a drastic bereavement. The existing support services were simply completely overloaded. With the app's low inhibition threshold and flexibility, bereaved people who, like Stadtbäumer and Bachmann, were unable to access any of the support services can be helped. The app enables users to set up a personalised plan that compiles offers from more than 150 course modules and counselling sessions developed by a team of psychotherapists. In the future, users will also be supported by experts in personal counselling sessions. In addition to providing bereavement counselling, the grievy team hopes that the app will bring about a lasting change in the way society deals with the topics of death and grief. "These topics should no longer be taboo, but should be discussed openly," says Aenis Chebil.

Giving opportunities

The two former scholarship holders are already pursuing the goal of becoming sponsors of the FH scholarship programme themselves. "The scholarship holders not only receive financial support, but also contact with interesting companies. And the sponsors gain contact with talented people who can bring a breath of fresh air to their company," says Bachmann. Perhaps not yet in the start-up phase, but one day grievy should also offer these opportunities.