How to feel well in the digital age
Searching for mental health help has been destigmatized. So how are you coping?
Christmas and New Year’s holidays are probably the most peaceful time of the year. A large part of the population takes a break, reflects on the past year, and spends time with their loved ones.
In the meantime, many people suffer from painful loneliness or struggle with mental health issues. While 19% of adults in the U.S. have an anxiety disorder, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the iPrescribe survey shows that “even more (34%) say they’ve taken anti-anxiety medications to manage family stress during the holidays”.
In the latest two episodes of Faces of digital health, Katie DiPerna Cook, SVP of Partnerships at Headspace Health - the largest global provider of digital mental health support, Luke Hejl, CEO of TimelyMD - the leading virtual health and well-being solution for college students, and Michael Maus, CCO at Iris Telehealth - a leading provider of telepsychiatry services for health systems and community health centers across the U.S., shared their insights in the mental health trends, telemedicine and digital health tools trying to address it in the US and globally.
Not enough providers
It’s no news to anyone that we see a shortage of mental health providers globally. 2022 WHO report on global mental health reveals that around half of the world’s population lives in countries with just one psychiatrist serving 200,000 or more people. In research by TimelyMD 9 out of 10 students said they suffer from anxiety.
Tune in to the discussion with Luke Hejl and Michael Maus in iTunes.
“Prior to Covid, 10% of all of our visits were focused on mental health. And at this point, close to 80% of all of the visits that we have with students are related to mental health. What we're seeing is that while isolation is not the top concern anymore, a good majority of students indicate that they struggle with anxiety and depression. So the need for mental help has never been greater from a higher education perspective,” says Luke Hejl. As mentioned by Michael Maus, only one out of four people in the US who need mental health help, search for it. “In rural Pennsylvania, 18,000 patients are waiting to see a psychiatrist. We're seeing a significant increase in children and adolescents, but 75% of counties in our country do not have a child psychiatrist,” he mentioned.
Where do you need help?
Addressing mental health is complex for several reasons: our moods fluctuate and mental health issues are usually not a single occurrence problem. It’s not only difficult to find a professional counselor or psychiatrist, it is also often difficult to know what one needs, says Katie DiPerna Cook. “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 need somebody to talk to? 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?”
Headspace Health tries to help through a digital front door. The company is the largest digital mental health provider in the world and it reaches 100 million people in 190 countries. Headspace Health was founded by a 2021 merger between Headspace meditation and mindfulness company and the on-demand US mental health service Ginger. In 2022, Headspace Health additionally acquired The Shine App, an inclusive mental health and well-being platform dedicated to providing an inclusive mental health experience for black, indigenous, and other people of color.
Episode Summary and Partial transcript.
Building resilience and easy access to affordable, in-the-moment support can help navigate crises and the need for higher levels of care. The lack of accessibility to services, however, is keeping many people in distress.
You are not alone
The WHO report states that formal mental health services do not exist in many places across the world. Even when they are available, they are often inaccessible or unaffordable.
This is where digital health can serve as the first line of help, and provide peer support, meditation, and mindfulness practice for anxiety relief and more.
If you’re among the ones in need of help but unable to get a therapist or professional, some of the apps with high scores by ORCHA (Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps) might offer partial relief:
Me Too - Mental Help app for young people aged 11-25 years.
Mush - the friendliest mum app - Access a support system for mums which allows you to find mums in your area with children of a similar age to yours, join local meet-ups, ask questions about your child, and access information.
Combined Minds - Gain access to resources and guidance for friends and families to support young people with their mental health. Help to provide an environment to help the young people you support to affect their own change.
Insight Timer - Access thousands of free guided meditations and talks led by top meditation and mindfulness experts, neuroscientists, psychologists, and teachers from leading universities. Track your progress, discuss with the app’s community, select by the meditation’s length of time and browse by topic.
Mindspa - Features mood tracking, psychology-based improvement articles, self-assessment tools, mental wellness workouts, life improvement courses and an emergency chatbot.
Where is digital mental health support moving in 2023?
With the rising discussions about integrated care, life-long data about individuals’ health and holistic care, Katie DiPerna Cook believes that mental healthcare will increasingly shift towards longitudinal 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 stabilizing, struggling, and needing support. A platform that can provide a longitudinal journey across the full spectrum of care is going to really be powerful,” she said.
Telemedicine and digital offering are ameliorated by clinically validated digital apps - digital therapeutics (DTx). Despite their proven impact on clinical outcomes, however, these solutions are scaling slowly due to regulation and the time it takes to gain trust with the end-users and prescribers who need to be convinced to use DTx alongside or instead of conventional medical treatments. Regulation of DTx is different in every country, with Germany at the forefront globally. Germany has a clear process for the approval of apps which, once approved, have to be reimbursed by insurance. The DiGA repository (repository of digital therapeutics in Germany) currently includes 15 mental health-related apps.
Commenting from the perspective of Iris Telehealth, Michael Maus observes a consolidation between telehealth providers and digital therapeutics innovations. “The classic curve is happening. I do look around inside the health conferences and wonder how many of these companies are going to be here next year? As we’re looking for the right partners, we want to partner with companies that are strong and healthy. We see the slowing of the market and the amount of money coming in to fund all these organizations.” In essence, digital therapeutics still have a long way to go before the broader adoption.
“One of our values that stands out to me is people above all else, and the other one is my favorite is suck less every day. We need to improve every single day. And it's okay to make a mistake. Let's just make sure we're not making a mistake around patient safety,” says Michael Maus.
Other four past episodes:
What expectations should we have in regard to the European Health Data Space?
The European Health Data Space is supposed to be implemented in a bit more than two years by 2025. Two goals are at the forefront: to create the infrastructure for a European health data pool for researchers and innovators, and secondly, to enable patients to pick up their medications outside their home country and give doctors across Europe access to their patient information, if in need of medical care while abroad in Europe. The biggest open question around the European Health Data Space (EHDS) is timelines, says Nick Schneider, Head of division 511 on new technologies and data use at the Germany Federal Ministry of Health.
Blockchain and Web3 in 2022: Where Are We? (John Bass, Hashed Industries)
Last year, one of the key buzzwords in healthcare was virtual care; in 2020 it was probably telemedicine. In 2019 it was AI, in 2017 and 2018, it was blockchain in interoperability. There are many others of course, and many of these terms are still popular today. It seems, though, that the one term that got pushed most in the background is blockchain. And that’s a good thing, says John Bass, Founder & CEO of Hashed Industries (dba Hashed Health), a healthcare-focused venture studio.
Has The Risk of Becoming a Nurse Become Too Great in the US?
"I think we don't have a shortage of nurses in the United States. I think we have a shortage of nurses willing to work in the environments that exist today." Rebecca Love, Thought Leader on Nurse Innovation & Entrepreneurship, experienced nurse executive and entrepreneur, Chief Clinical Officer of IntelyCare.
Nurses play a key role in patient care, but their contribution to patient outcomes is often undervalued and underappreciated. It took a pandemic to create a major shift in their job opportunities and power to negotiate. Many nurses left the profession entirely, others switched to better-paid travel or agency jobs.
How do AI and VR improve eye care? (EIT Health Germany-Switzerland Ep. 10)
Compared to the existing diagnostics tools, a VR approach is much more portable and accessible. The Swiss company PeriVision is using AI and VR to enable more efficient workflows and deeper clinical insights to manage eye diseases better.