From left: Eugene Borukhovich, co-founder and COO, YourCoach Health; Naomi Allen, CEO and co-founder, Brightline; Ellen Herlacher, head of LRVHealth; Gupta; and Jeff Weness, Head of Digital Opportunity and Business Intelligence, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals.
Mental health services are lacking across the country, but there is a marked lack of such resources in some places. These “health deserts” existed long before the rise of Covid-19, but one of the bright spots of the pandemic is the spotlight on technology that brings mental health services to more people in more places.
Jeff Weness, director of digital opportunity and business intelligence at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, said telemedicine was already an accepted practice, but for some children at home it was difficult to find a place to discuss openly. He noted that new apps are being adopted as a way for children to be able to perform therapy in the quiet of their own room, without even having to speak aloud.
“The pandemic has revealed some opportunities that hopefully will have a lasting impact and a positive impact,” Venes said.
Weness was one of the speakers on the Stop the Mental Health Crisis panel on Wednesday. MedCity INVEST Conference Chicago. Brightline CEO and co-founder Naomi Allen joined him. Ellen Herlacher, principal, LRVHealth; Neha Gupta, director, Division of Integrative Behavioral Health, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center. The session was moderated by Eugene Borukhovich, co-founder and COO of YourCoach Health.
Brightline, a behavioral health service startup for children and families, is one of the companies offering new digital solutions for mental health. Allen said schools are sorely lacking in resources to meet students’ mental health needs. At the same time, parents are reluctant to talk about mental health issues. If there’s good news here, it’s that young people are looking for more support and they’re more willing to talk about mental health, she said.
This week, Brightline closed a $105 million The Series C financing, which is said to be used to further increase access to mental health care. In particular, the Palo Alto, California-based company said it will expand its services to teens and offer specialized programs that cover diverse populations, such as caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorders and LBGTQ+ teens.
The ability to reach overlooked groups is one of the traits Herlacher looks for in companies. Her company, LRVHealth, is an investor in SilverCloud Health, a Boston-based company that provides behavioral health plans that patients can access digitally. SilverCloud’s product is designed to add capacity when supplies of mental health professionals are limited, the company recently announced New digital mental health resource with a special focus on family mental health.
Much mental health care can be done digitally, Herlacher said. The department is still sorting out which parts of it will be permanent, which in turn will affect what can be reimbursed. But she added that digital technology is important to alleviate the lack of options in the healthy desert.
“Numbers have to be on the table, and I don’t think we’re reaching our full potential,” Herlacher said.
Investing in digital options for mental health early is important, especially since downstream costs, especially depression, are so high, Gupta said. Rush is working to more aggressively address mental health needs through screening. Through the hospital’s collaborative care program, patients have the opportunity to receive primary care or mental health care as needed. Patients are screened through health questionnaires and questions from clinic staff, Gupta said. If a response indicates a mental health need, a behavioral health professional will call the patient within 7 days to assess the need and connect the patient to the appropriate resources.
One feature she’s looking for in the new technology, Herlacher said, is measurement-based care, which means being able to measure not just whether a service is appropriate, but whether it’s high-quality. Measurement is key because it shows that a technology is achieving its design goals. Some of the technologies Otsuka is working on provide specific measures of mental health that show how patients are doing over time, Weness said. The ability to create a story for reimbursement, he said, also helps show how engaged users are with digital therapy.
Photo: Walter Lim, MedCity News
