Resiliency Technologies Research & Collaboration

Resiliency Technologies was founded by CEO Robyn Hussa Farrell to address critical gaps in mental health literacy and stigma across healthcare, education, and family systems through evidence-based prevention science. Drawing from years of experience in substance abuse and eating disorder treatment centers, Farrell sought to leverage established risk and protective factor frameworks incorporating suicide prevention, resiliency, and mental health literacy to bolster resilience for vulnerable youth. She developed a comprehensive psychoeducational intervention architecture that focuses on improving eight primary protective factors inspired by foundational research from Neumark-Sztainer, Reupert, and Bhushan/Burke-Harris, while incorporating validated stigma reduction principles developed by Hinshaw and colleagues at University of California, Berkeley. This evidence-based framework synthesizes 15 core components and has been operationalized through Sharpen®, an innovative digital platform grounded in social-ecological theory that enables precision delivery of prevention modules across multiple stakeholder interfaces. Since 2014, Sharpen has undergone rigorous validation across diverse populations including medical students, foster parents, college students, athletes, and adolescents, earning certifications from institutions such as the University of Washington's SMART Center validation for high school adolescents, South Carolina Department of Social Services certification for parent education, professional training and parent / youth resiliency platform for five year New York City VNS Health Safe Pathway suicide prevention program, funded through NY Office of Mental Health.  Sharpen has also deployed peer resiliency and mentoring training components for adolescents engaged in multiple youth serving organizations in GA, CA, CO and SC and integration into medical education curricula at medical schools. 

 

Building on this foundation of research and real-world validation, we invite hospital systems and university-based researchers to collaborate with us in advancing the science of digital mental health interventions and exploring new applications of our evidence-based platform.  Examples of research partnerships are below.