About Our Products

PASS Inc. products are driven by community need and sparked by collaboration. We are designers as well as researchers with a focus on knowledge translation. Items are printed and sourced within North America, and we seasonally employ persons for design and assembly from local communities.

This page features detailed information about how each of our products have been designed as well as the research we have conducted to confirm their effectiveness.

PASS Kit Design

Inspired by the needs of university students, the PASS kit has been described as a “first aid kit for mental health,” designed to offer in-the-moment support through tangible tools and concise advice.

Each PASS kit contains:

• Earplugs: to block out noise, for sleep and for focus

• Sleeping Mask: to block out light for naps, headache relief, and for forcing yourself away from the screen for a break

• Chewing Gum: to assist focus and deter undesired consumption habits

• Squeezable Foam Star: Encourages the tense and release of muscles to promote blood flow to reduce stress

• PASS Cards: Provides behaviours and perspectives as strategies to manage stress

PASS Cards Design

PASS Cards are the critical item of our PASS products, designed to provide concise and digestible mental health strategies in an accessible and transportable format. We take care to use friendly wording to encourage readers to feel that they are being spoken to as a friend in times of crisis.

• PASS Cards prominently feature hotlines, and include steps to prepare for formal treatment.

• 25 strategies are sequenced in categories in order of how quickly they can be enacted. For example, a suggestion to drink water comes before a suggestion to seek support from a friend.

• PASS Cards’ categories are colour coded for easy search.

• PASS Cards are removable if you want to keep a few in a wallet or behind a clear phone case.

• Encourages the user to question their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours based on Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT).

• PASS Cards suggest small changes which are proven to be effective. By “automating” your “debugging,” we have done the thinking for you.

• PASS Cards only present information and suggestions; we recognize you know yourself more than us on what works for you.

Our Internal Research

The current PASS kit has been iterated on multiple times since 2016.

In 2016 we conducted a pilot study at the University of Waterloo funded by the Social Impact Fund of St. Paul’s University College. The key findings of our mixed-methods comparative study (sample of 400 students across two neighbouring residences) were that of the responding students who were using the PASS kit (32%):

• Almost half (48%) retained use after 4 months

• One of four (26%) students felt more prepared to deal with oncoming stress than the group without the PASS kit, based on the perceived stress scale (PSS).

“As we continue to find ways to support our students and address the challenges of mental health in a university setting, the PASS kit allows me to feel comfortable that we are providing a tangible resource.”

— STEVE PRENTICE, RESIDENCE LIFE MANAGER, UW GREENHOUSE

*These are only descriptive statistics, as our sample size is too small to generalize to a larger population (e.g. 35 thousand students of the UW campus). However, the strength of our study is in qualitative research and testimonials.

• The cards were the most-used item in the kit, with students attributing it to its concise, portable, and colourful format.

• Cases of self harm were mitigated with the PASS kit

• Contents of the kit aided in sleep and roommate disagreements

• It was a conversation starter with students in mental health

• Residence coordinators were given a guide on how to talk about mental health

• Visitors to dorm rooms would question the item and a conversation would be sparked

Since our product launch, we have prioritized qualitative feedback in the form of testimonials from our recipients and online public ranging from students to industry professionals including software developers, clinicians, and activists.