The pandemic has significantly increased the need for mental healthcare and destigmatized discussing well-being and mental health issues in everyday conversation. Unfortunately, the number of quality providers of mental health services is still much lower than the demand, and the number of people that are seeking help is rising. 

At HLTH or Health conference, which took place in November in Las Vegas, I spoke with representatives of 3 mental health-focused companies based in the US. TimelyMD is the ninth-fastest growing health services company in the US, according to Inc., and focuses on the mental health of students, Iris Telehealth is a leading provider of telepsychiatry services for health systems and community health centers across the U.S. and Headspace Health -the largest digital mental health provider in the world - it is reaching 100 million people in 190 countries across the world. 

In this episode, Katie DiPerna Cook - SVP of Partnerships at Headspace Health, talks about the state of mental health in 2022, how is Headspace health evolving, and how to build resilience to cope with the broad uncertainty of the current political, economic and environmental stress. 

Headspace Health offers a broad range of services. If was established after a 2021 merger between Headspace - world-class meditation and mindfulness company and Ginger - the on-demand mental health service provider in the US. In 2022, Headspace Health also acquired The Shine App, a mental health and well-being platform dedicated to providing an inclusive mental health experience for black, indigenous, and other people of color. 

Key points:

The pandemic has significantly increased the need for mental healthcare and destigmatized the need for it in everyday conversation

• The pandemic and other global events have caused ongoing stress and challenges, making it clear that mental healthcare is an important part of our lives.

• Building resilience and easy access to affordable, in-the-moment support can help navigate crises and the need for higher levels of care.

• Mental health apps and other technology can provide accessible and consumable resources for daily mental healthcare, building resilience and skills to handle crises.

• Data shows a potential decrease in the use of medications due to mental health apps, but more research is needed to understand the effects of technology-based mental healthcare fully.

• It's important to continue to focus on mental healthcare and find ways to make it accessible and affordable for all individuals and communities.

This is an excerpt of the interview, tune in for the full episode:

[PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT]

What is the general state of where mental health is according to your assessment? The pandemic is now over. However, some of the numbers that were mentioned at HLTH were that if 11% of the adult population in the US reported mental health issues before the pandemic, that number rose significantly in 2022.

The pandemic deeply accelerated mental health needs. The number of people who were seeking mental healthcare truly destigmatized the need to have mental healthcare as a part of our everyday conversation.

It was incredibly traumatic what we went through as a world and continue to go through in a lot. While the pandemic is stabilizing, look at the world around us, right? The potential for a recession, economic challenges, and rising prices. People are continuing to experience day-to-day stress in how they take care of their lives and their families.

You look around the world, and there's war and global economic pressure. And then you just look at what's happening day to day across the country? Gun violence. There was shooting again last night. I'm a mom. There was a shooting not too far from me, and we need to send our kids to school.So there are everyday challenges that I think that we've come to a realization that mental healthcare is something that is going to be a part of our lives and needs to be we need to find ways to get people to access accessible, affordable, at the moment, support to build resilience, but then also makes sure that we're able to help navigate.

When a crisis comes and they need a higher level of care. And that's really what we're looking to do.

It's interesting the way that you described the global uncertainty that we're currently facing. And I think the thing that stood out for me was when you said if your kids go to school, you worry because there was a shooting not so far from you. So I'm thinking a mental health app is not going to help with that. So to what extent do you think we can actually cope with all the problems by just addressing mental health, so we don't overemphasize that it's us that need to be calm when everything is falling apart?

To me, it's about building resilience. It's about helping people think about taking care of themselves and their own mental health. Sometimes I feel like when I say things like that, it sounds self-serving or I don't have time for myself. But I think what we've shown is that mental health is health. It's a huge part of keeping an individual healthy, keeping a family healthy, and keeping a community healthy. And we need to find ways to make that available every day in the moment. Going to a therapy session is honestly out of reach for millions of people, whether that's for affordability reasons, for schedule, or reasons for just don't have time.

But picking up your phone or participating in a meditation that's consumable, easy to access, understandable, and feels like a part of your day-to-day life is really changing the way people think about mental healthcare.

What do you see that people are worried about when using digital mental health services? Is it the fact that if an invitation comes through their community or through their employer, that data's going to be shared with the employer and it's going to work against them? What are the worries that you see there and basically the obstacles that you need to overcome?

There's a longstanding history of many people, particularly in marginalized or underserved communities, not feeling comfortable talking about mental healthcare and accessing mental healthcare. It's privacy, right? It's; I don't know this, I don't know Ginger, I don't know this provider I'm talking to. They're on my phone. Why are they reaching out? There's no context there. And so with a lack of in-community trust and awareness, it's really hard to break that trust barrier. And that's something we're really focused on earning. We take every protection in the world to make sure that members’ data is safe and secure. We are a provider. I think that's a really important distinction that makes us different from other digital mental healthcare apps.

We are a licensed medical provider in 50 states, so we are here to the same HIPAA requirements and standards as your therapist down the street. And so I think that makes us really unique in the market. There's no other virtual mental healthcare that is a provider the way our many other organizations are sort of aggregators of networks, therapy services, and provider services. We actually are a provider and I think that just allows us and enforces us to have an even higher standard for earning trust and protecting data in the mental health market because of everything that's been happening with the world, which has been developing significantly, also on the applications and mobile apps side.

Did that impact you in any way in terms of getting new ideas about how to approach people and just seeing what your competition does? How do you see, generally speaking, the market of mental health?

It's confusing, right? If you're a member, if you're a patient, if you're an employer, or a health plan buyer, there are so many incredible companies out there doing good work. I think that the momentum towards getting people into care and the accessibility provided in the virtual format is incredible for advancing the mental healthcare field. And it's really the reason why we brought Headspace and Ginger together because we're the only platform out there that provides a full spectrum of services.

When you are seeking mental healthcare, you don't know what you need, right? You think you need a therapist, but is it really a therapist, or do you just need somebody to talk to, right? Or do you need to build resilience?

And even if you do need a therapist, how do you find one, and do they have availability? Our platform takes away all of those challenges. It's one front door. You come in and we're able to navigate you to the right level of care. At the right cost. And again, all from your smartphone while you're sitting in line waiting to pick your kid up from school.

Headspace Health is present in over 190 countries, it is accessible to over 100 million people. What are the differences that you see in geographies in the way that people use the app? Or what are they looking for? Do you see any differences?

I think that no matter where you are, mental health needs are great. And that's why we've seen so much expansion around the world. We're in five languages now on the Headspace side. But I think we are looking to next year really through partnerships, to help reach out to more communities around the world.

Where do you see mental health applications and just mental health generally is going in the future years? What do you expect from 2023?

I think that more and more, you're going to see the need for members to have support across a longitudinal journey in their mental health care. Mental health is not getting your knee replaced, right? You don’t get surgery and you’re done with the problem. Mental health isn't like that. You can go from doing well to struggling, to stabilizing, to struggling, to needing support.

As we see through all of the expansion of virtual mental health services, a platform that can provide a longitudinal journey across the full spectrum of care is going to really be powerful.

This is just an excerpt. Tune in to the full discussion in iTunes of Spotify.