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Tag: Mental Health

Provide Emotional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Physicians Facing Psychological Trauma From the COVID-19 Crisis

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By SUZAN SONG MD, MPH, PhD

The U.S. now has the highest number of COVID-related deaths in the world, with exhausted, frightened physicians managing the front lines. We need not only medical supplies but also emotional personal protective equipment (PPE) against the psychological burden of the pandemic.

As a psychiatrist, my role in COVID-19 has included that of a therapist for my colleagues. I helped start Physician Support Line, a peer-to-peer hotline for physicians staffed by more than 500 volunteer psychiatrists. Through the hotline and social media, physicians are revealing their emotional fatigue. One doctor shared her sense of powerlessness when she couldn’t provide comfort but instead had to watch her young patient with COVID-19 die alone from behind a glass window. Another shared his sorrow after his 72-year-old patient died by suicide. She was socially isolated and didn’t want to be a burden on anyone if she contracted COVID-19. An internist felt deep distress and alarm that her hospital was quickly running out of ventilators and had 12 codes in 24 hours. 

Through a brief survey I conducted across the U.S., 269 physicians reported moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety (53%), depression (43%), and insomnia (16%). About 46% wanted to see or would consider seeing a mental health clinician for severe anxiety (30%), not feeling like themselves (27%), or being unhappy (21%). These are all similar statistics to the front line health care workers in Wuhan. 

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Leading Mental Health Platform on DTx Reimbursement, Scaling | Ken Cahill, SilverCloud Health

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By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Digital mental health platform SilverCloud Health is the digital-therapeutic-of-choice for mental health services in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and serves nearly 250 healthcare organizations around the world, racking up 1.5 million therapy hours and 5 million clinical interactions. CEO Ken Cahill stops by to catch us up on SilverCloud Health’s impressive clinical outcomes and how he’s tackling challenges around reimbursement that are common for many digital therapeutics startups. His unique approach (spoiler alert: he partners with providers to approach payers for exception codes) may give some inspiration to those in a similar situation, but tune in for Ken’s full explanation and details on how the company plans to double over the next year.

Filmed at Frontiers Health in Berlin, Germany, November 2019.

Solving the ‘Supply Side’ of Scaling up Behavioral Health Care | Russell Glass, CEO, Ginger

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BY JESSICA DAMASSA, WTF HEALTH

The ‘virtual-care-for-behavioral-health’ space is getting a bit crowded these days, particularly as demand for such services reach new heights among patients. Russell Glass, CEO of health tech startup, Ginger (formerly known as Ginger.io) thinks his company has solved the supply-and-demand imbalance with their unique model that offers on-demand coaching, video therapy & psychiatry, and self-guided content by a range of different mental health care providers. Trained behavioral health coaches serve as the front-line of Ginger’s service, then act as care coordinators to bring in fully-licensed therapists and psychiatrists as needed. With 60 enterprise clients, double-digit patient engagement rates, and outcomes beating standard of care rates, Ginger’s got traction — and also cash. The company’s raised more than $70 million, having closed a Series C (with a follow on) in late 2019. Russ details scale up plans AND answers the question that all you health tech pundits are no doubt dying to ask: what happened to the ‘.io’?!

Filmed at HLTH 2019 in Las Vegas, October 2019.

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A Clinically Validated Game Teaching Mental Health Coping Strategies | Swatee Surve, Litesprite

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By JESSICA DAMASSA, WTF HEALTH

How can helping a cartoon fox also help your mental health? Enter Socks the Fox and Sinasprite, a world exploration game that teaches players evidence-based treatments and coping methods for anxiety and depression. How does it work? Litesprite CEO Swatee Surve explains that players are charged with helping Socks the Fox become a Zen master (of course) and, in doing so, work through a series of challenges and exercises that teach coping mechanisms that range from journaling to diaphragmatic breathing. With its super-sticky storyline (Socks is adorable) the clinically validated game offers a new, upbeat way to bring tech and game theory into the way we treat mental health disorders.

Filmed at Bayer G4A Signing Day in Berlin, Germany, October 2019.

Apply to Pilot your Tech and Transform Mental Health Services in California!

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SPONSORED POST

By CATALYST @ HEALTH 2.0

According to the California Health Care Foundation, from 2012-2014, nearly 20% of Californian adults who sought mental health treatment did not receive it. It is believed that these figures may even be understated, as The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has cited that nearly 60% of American adults with mental illness do not receive any treatment. Unmet mental health needs in California are attributed to a lack of access to appropriate services and providers, as well as the cost of care, a factor that is often exacerbated by a lack of health insurance.

While traditional mental health services play an important role in supporting those in need, novel technologies can complement standard care delivery and provide individuals and communities with more accessible and optimized mental health services that focus on prevention, early intervention, family support, and social connectedness.

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Pilot Your Technology with Help@Hand

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SPONSORED POST

By CATALYST @ HEALTH 2.0

According to the California Health Care Foundation, from 2012-2014, nearly 20% of Californian adults who sought mental health treatment did not receive it. It is believed that these figures may even be understated, as The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has cited that nearly 60% of American adults with mental illness do not receive any treatment. Unmet mental health needs in California are attributed to a lack of access to appropriate services and providers, as well as the cost of care, a factor that is often exacerbated by a lack of health insurance.

While traditional mental health services play an important role in supporting those in need, novel technologies can complement standard care delivery and provide individuals and communities with more accessible and optimized mental health services that focus on prevention, early intervention, family support, and social connectedness. 

The Help@Hand Project is a California statewide collaborative project to bring technology-based mental health solutions to the public mental health system through a highly innovative “suite” of digital solutions. The project aims to expand access to mental health services by engaging and treating individuals that are underserved in the current traditional care delivery model. With technology becoming an integral part of everyday life, the collaborative hopes to leverage familiar devices as means to connect and better serve those in need. This Help@Hand project will utilize applications on smartphones, tablets, digital devices, or computers as a tool to engage, support and give access to treatment using innovative virtual engagement strategies. Focus areas include:

  1. Peer Chat and Digital Therapeutics
  2. Virtual Evidence Based Therapy Utilizing an Avatar
  3. Passive Data Collection for Early Detection and Intervention
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Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 93 | Ginger, VillageMD, & Health Recovery Solutions

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The drought is over! On Episode 93 of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I talk deals, deals, deals. Ginger, which provides digital mental health services, raises $35 million and is growing quite fast; VillageMD, one of numerous companies who are trying to figure out a new way to do primary care, raises $100 million; Health Recovery Solutions, which does remote patient monitoring, gets $10 million. In other news, Livongo’s stock price collapsed a little bit, but it was crazy when it first came out so now prices are more “normal”; uBiome files for bankruptcy, and Tula Health’s $2.5 million raise gets quite possibly the best press release we’ve ever seen (you’ve got to hear this). —Matthew Holt

Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 86 | Lightning Round!

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Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I are back from Europe and there is a LOT going on in health tech right now. In Episode 86, Jess asks me about United Health’s big moves, between acquiring PatientsLikeMe and their acquisition of DaVita Medical going through; integrated mental health company Quartet Health raising $60 million; Xealth closing a $14 million round (maybe now they’ll make Epic relevant); Collective Health’s $205 million raise led by SoftBank,; Vida’s $30 million round led by Teladoc (who knows why Teladoc didn’t just acquire Vida); European telehealth company Zava raising $32 million; and finally, Phreesia going IPO (wasn’t Livongo the one to watch?). —Matthew Holt

Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 82 | Talkspace, Heal & Apple

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Today on Health in 2 Point 00, I’m back (despite Jess’s attempt to replace me). In Episode 82, Jess asks me about Talkspace’s $50 million raise, Heal getting flack for adding telehealth to their house call service, and Apple acquiring Tueo Health last year—and we’re just now hearing about it. Jess also gets riled up by Pokemon Sleep and Pillo’s $11 million raise. —Matthew Holt

Health Care Must Open More Doors to Mental Health Patients

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Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD
Arpan Waghray, MD

By ARPAN WAGHRAY, MD and BENJAMIN F. MILLER, PsyD

If someone we love has a physical ailment, we can list a variety of places for them to seek care: a clinician’s office, a pharmacy, an urgent care clinic, a school health clinic, an emergency department — the list goes on.

And, in every case, we would feel confident the clinicians in those places would know how to handle the case — or at least know where to send the patient if they need more intensive or specialized care.

But, sadly, the same isn’t true for a loved one with a mental health or substance misuse need, even thought mental health problems are more prevalent than many physical conditions.

As deaths of despair from drug or alcohol misuse or suicide continue to rise, we need a comprehensive, coordinated “no wrong door” approach that fully integrates mental health into the health care system and beyond. We need to transform our clinical practice, creating more options for care and putting mental health and substance use patients’ best interests first. Policy and payment reform must happen to make this new vision of care possible.

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