Our Mental Health Crisis and Tech’s Role In It

Mental health has always had a challenging place in healthcare.  First, it has suffered from an extreme amount of stigma (and still does) that has caused many people to avoid getting the mental health care they need.  Second, (and possibly because of the stigma) we don’t have nearly enough mental health providers out there to service everyone that needs help.  Plus, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns have driven almost all of us to question our mental health state at some point in the last year.  While many of these COVID related mental health problems don’t rise to the point that they need professional help, many do.

It’s not hard to see where this is headed.  Lots of people with mental health issues and not enough mental health providers to care for those in need.  I know the value of professional mental health on a number of levels.  When I first started working in healthcare I worked at a health and counseling center that tried to treat the patient across health and mental health.  The team did a phenomenal job taking care of every aspect of a person’s wellness.  While I saw the impact of this type of coordinated effort, I also saw that it was time consuming work to do it effectively.

Whenever we talk about time, we’re often talking about cost.  In mental health, that seems to be the case more than any other healthcare out there.  Professional mental health is not cheap.  How then are we going to scale to the problem?

Many look a tele-mental health as part of the solution.  While I think tele-mental health is amazing, I’m not sure it really addresses this problem.  Tele-mental health definitely lowers the barriers to entry and helps avoid some of the stigma around mental health, but it doesn’t really change the cost equation.  In this case, I’m talking about a telehealth visit with a counselor or psychiatrist.  The time required for the visit is still roughly the same and the cost is the same.  So, while I love telehealth solutions in the mental health space for other reasons, I don’t see it really solving the larger issue of mental health costs or lack of mental health providers.

The more interesting technology in the mental health space is essentially apps that offer some sort of mental health treatment.  On the far end of this is companies like Headspace that assists with things like meditation which has shown some improvement in people’s mental health.  However, I think most therapists would likely argue that while a direct to consumer offering like Headspace might be good for a lot of people, it doesn’t really go deep enough to help with most mental health issues.  In fact, most would likely argue that it’s not a treatment for mental health.

Another popular company in this space is Ginger.  Last year they announced $50 million in funding to create an On-Demand Mental Healthcare System.  That’s quite the war chest to be able to work on the problem.  In many ways, I compare Ginger to what Crossover Health is doing in the healthcare space.  As I understand it, they’re trying to combine asynchronous messaging with in person and virtual visits to be able to scale the solution.

This approach is interesting and begs the question of whether good mental health can be provided through asynchronous messaging.  On the medical side of things, we’ve seen that this works just fine.  Often a text with a doctor is all that’s needed to deal with many health issues.  There are reimbursement issues with this approach which is why companies like Crossover Health are going to employers, but in many cases messaging is all that’s needed to provide the care the patient needs.  Is the same true in mental health?

I think the jury is still out on this, but there are a lot of companies working on it.  Plus, there’s a real desire to figure out a technology based solution for mental health since it’s pretty clear that the high touch mental health model by a therapist won’t scale to the problem.

I recently heard from Brightline, a company focused on Behavioral Therapy for kids and teens, where they shared their approach to using technology and people for behavioral health as follows:

  • Brightline Connect: An on-demand digital platform that includes resources and education for parents, interactive treatment exercises, and more.

  • Brightline Coaching: 1:1 coaching by video visit to support kids, teens, and parents with skill-building and guidance for dealing with everything from tough breakups and missing friends to anxious thoughts and trouble staying on track with school.

  • Brightline Care: Behavioral therapy, medication support, and speech therapy by video visit for a range of behavioral health needs, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, externalizing behaviors like tantrums, and more.

This is one of the more mature offerings I’ve seen in the space when it comes to trying to create a full digital platform to address mental health challenges.  You can see the mix of education and interactive exercises which also can lead to video visits or other therapy that might be needed.  While I think we’re still early in fully understanding how to integrate technology and people into mental health therapy, this feels directionally where most mental health technology companies are heading.

What’s been your experience with tech’s role in addressing the mental health crisis?  Where should technology play a role and where do people need to be involved?  Which mental health companies are you watching in this space?  Let us know what you’re seeing in the comments or on Twitter with @hcittoday.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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