Understanding the study

The study focused on evaluating an online, school-based program aimed at preventing mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and substance misuse among Australian adolescents. The study spanned over 72 months and involved a cluster-randomized controlled trial.

Key Insights from the Study

The findings of the study are crucial, adding to the growing evidence supporting the implementation of online programs in schools to tackle mental health problems among adolescents. The main reasons for school and student dropout included lack of time to conduct the study, changes in teachers, and failure to return the informed consent form.

What does this mean?

The outcomes of this study have significant implications for adolescent mental health. It highlights the potential of online programs in schools to effectively address and prevent mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and substance misuse among adolescents.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, this research offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of a universal, school-based, online program for the prevention of mental health issues among Australian adolescents. The results highlight the potential of such programs for addressing and preventing mental health issues among adolescents. Further research is needed to understand the long-term impacts of these programs and their applicability in different contexts.

For more detailed information, please refer to the full study.

RUTHERFORD, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–One Mind, a leading mental health non-profit based in Napa Valley, CA, today announced the 2024 cohort of its flagship One Mind Accelerator program. The 10 startups, selected from over 180 applicants, will receive $100,000 investment each, and will participate in an intensive 9-week program focused on mentoring, fundraising, business development, and founder development. By supporting emerging companies through the Accelerator, One Mind seeks to positively impact the lives of people facing mental health challenges by advancing precision psychiatry, and making high quality mental healthcare more accessible, affordable, and equitable.

This is the second cohort for the One Mind Accelerator since the program’s launch in 2023. The 10 companies selected to participate in the 2024 session are:

• Amae Health is an integrated whole-person care provider specializing in treating severe mental illness (SMI), focused on personalized and lifelong treatment to deliver lasting health outcomes.
• Cerula Care is a virtual behavioral healthcare practice that partners with specialists and tailors behavioral health care for adults with serious illness. Cerula Care is using AI/ML modeling to fuel clinical and cost outcomes related to improvement in behavioral health and reduction in hospitalizations.
• Dionysus Digital Health is developing the first clinically validated epigenetic tests to diagnose hormonal depressions like postpartum depression, PMS, and menopause in women, and to offer precision medical insights to enable the most effective treatments.
• Ellipsis Health has developed the first-ever voice-based biomarker powered co-pilot for behavioral health by layering on case management, primary care, and urgent care calls. With minutes of speech, Ellipsis’s AI-based solution can in real-time screen for anxiety and depression and triage to different pathways based on severity.
• Function Health is a personal health co-pilot that starts with understanding your body through all-in-one lab testing. Function’s membership includes 100+ advanced lab tests, with results delivered alongside easy-to-read, actionable insights developed with the world’s top doctors.
• Holobiome is a B2B platform company building the world’s most comprehensive collection of human gut bacteria and using it as a tool to map how the gut microbiome influences our biology. They are first unraveling the gut-brain-axis, with a focus on translating these discoveries into better food, consumer products, and drugs to give humanity the tools it needs to combat major problems like depression and pain.
• Humans Anonymous is building anonymous audio for mental health. Members join daily meetings to share their struggles, get advice, and support each other. Communities include loneliness, depression, anxiety, and more.
• Pangea Bio is a biotechnology company developing transformative medicines for neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders, by deploying AI to uncover promising molecules inspired by nature’s diverse chemical space.
• Soulside is an AI-powered mental health platform that enables clinical professionals to deliver effective group support for high-risk adults, with an initial focus on enabling nurse-led groups for pregnancy and postpartum support.
• Vita Health delivers virtual therapy proven to reduce the likelihood of death by suicide by 60-80%. Vita Health is the only clinically proven, evidence-based solution focused on suicide risk reduction and prevention.

“The 2024 companies represent the very best of mental health innovation and we are excited to welcome them into the One Mind Accelerator,” said Brandon Staglin, President of One Mind. “From digital health to biotech, from Pre-Seed to Series B, and from first-time founders to serial entrepreneurs, this cohort is indeed eclectic. Drawing from my personal experience with schizophrenia, and with millions of lives in the balance, I eagerly anticipate witnessing their pioneering and diverse innovations spark crucial advances in the diagnosis, treatment, and care for people facing mental illness.”

This year’s session commences March 4 with a week of in-person programming in Menlo Park, CA, followed by seven weeks of virtual programming, and a final capstone week also to be held in-person in Menlo Park at the end of April. A high level of programmatic customization to each company’s needs and roadmap is a key cornerstone of the program. The Accelerator leverages One Mind’s extensive network of scientists, investors, entrepreneurs, operators, policymakers, payers, providers, mental health advocates, and more to serve as mentors and subject matter experts to the selected companies.

​​Key highlights of the 2024 cohort-exclusive programming include:

• A keynote fireside chat with Thomas Insel, MD, former Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, and Patrick J. Kennedy, former congressman and Founder of the Kennedy Forum;
• an Investor panel with representatives from Google Ventures, Satori Neuro, GreyMatter Capital, and the Catalytic Impact Foundation;
• an Employer Panel with representatives from Bank of America, Levi Strauss, and Accenture;
• a Payer Panel with representatives from Optum, Headway, Health Care Service Corporation, and NovaWell;
• a Provider Panel with leadership from Stanford University School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, and SohoMD; and
• a BioPharma Industry roundtable with current and former representatives from Boehringer Ingelheim, AbbVie, Otsuka, COMPASS Pathways, and Pfizer, among others.

As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, One Mind is grateful to receive generous philanthropic support from private donors, foundations, and corporate sponsors who together make the One Mind Accelerator possible. These include Bank of America and the Baszucki Group as lead sponsors, as well as support from Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Brook Byers, John and Beth Cooper, Aakash Desai, Fred Harman, Indianapolis Colts Kicking The Stigma, Otsuka, Anthony & Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation, Resonance Philanthropies, TMCity Foundation, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and the One Mind Board of Directors.

For additional information and questions about the One Mind Accelerator, including about the closing week from April 29 to May 1, please contact Carmine Di Maro, Director of One Mind Accelerator: carmine.dimaro@onemind.org.

About One Mind

Launched in 1995 by Shari and Garen Staglin as their means to “run toward the problem” of their son’s schizophrenia diagnosis, One Mind is today a leading mental health non-profit that heals lives by direct support for neuropsychiatric brain research. By convening the brightest minds in brain science and advocacy around a collective vision of “Accelerating Brain Health for All,” One Mind is advancing a three-pronged program strategy of accelerating discoveries, improving services, and transforming culture. Through such achievements as enrolling over 10,000 patients in innovative clinical studies and the One Mind at Work initiative that has brought supportive workplace mental health practices to over 7 million employees, One Mind is creating a world where all facing brain health challenges can build healthy, productive lives. Brandon Staglin, whose own experiences triggered the creation of the non-profit, now serves as its President, exemplifying the change One Mind seeks in its disruptive research and workplace initiatives.

Contacts

Media:
DKC News, OneMindDKC@dkcnews.com

In the first part of the study, researchers conducted a systematic review of studies related to TikTok and its association with public health or mental health from 2016 to 2021. They searched six databases and identified 24 studies covering various topics, including COVID-19, dermatology, eating disorders, and public health promotion. Most of these studies were from the USA and used content analysis as their research method.

In the second part of the study, the researchers analyzed 29 Irish TikTok accounts, including those of public health authorities, charities, and personal TikTok creators. These accounts collectively garnered significant engagement from younger populations, with a total of over 2.5 million likes, 13,775 comments, and 21,254 shares.

Study 1 – Systematic Review

Search Strategy: The research team developed a comprehensive search strategy that included relevant public and mental health terms combined with the keyword “TikTok.” This strategy was applied to six databases, namely PSYCINFO, PUBMED, Wiley, Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), covering the period from 2016 to 2021. The detailed search strategy is available in the supplementary materials.

Search Timeline: The search was conducted between June and July 2021, resulting in the screening of 275 studies initially.

Selection Criteria and Quality Appraisal: Studies that were included had to be published in English and focus primarily on TikTok. For quantitative studies, the team used the quality appraisal tool by Dunne et al. (2018), while qualitative studies were assessed using the CASP (2018) checklist. The second author conducted the initial screening of titles and abstracts, with both authors discussing and reaching a consensus on articles with unclear eligibility.

• Number of Studies: A total of 24 studies were included in the final review.
• Geographical Distribution: The majority of these studies were conducted in the USA (20 out of 24), with the remaining studies originating from China, Ireland, Australia, and Canada.
• Research Methodologies: Most of the studies employed content analysis as their primary research methodology (20 out of 24). Other research designs included cross-sectional studies (1), thematic analysis (2), and case series (1).
• Diverse Topics: The research on TikTok covered a wide range of topics, including COVID-19 (10 studies), dermatology (7), eating disorders (1), cancer (1), tics (1), radiology (1), sexual health (1), DNA (1), and public health promotion (1).
• Study Quality: The overall quality of the studies varied, with 11 studies rated as low quality, 7 as acceptable, and 6 as good quality.

Study 2 – Content Analysis on TikTok

Search Strategy and Data Collection: The research team aimed to replicate the search strategy used in Study 1. They converted the search terms into TikTok hashtags and combined them with Irish-specific hashtags. The top two “most liked” videos were selected from three specific groups: official public health accounts, registered Irish charities, and personal TikTok creators. This data collection took place in July 2021, using a research-only TikTok account.

Coding Approach: To centralize and organize the collected information, a descriptive table was created in advance. This table included engagement metrics like the number of likes, followers, and comments, as well as video characteristics, summaries, and duration. The presence of a dialogic loop, where questions were posed and answered to encourage engagement, was considered crucial for TikTok and counted across all included content. Data extraction and synthesis were manually performed by the second author using Microsoft Excel.

• Account Types: The analysis covered various types of TikTok accounts popular in Ireland, including public health accounts (2), charity accounts (5), and personal creator accounts (22).
• Engagement Metrics: The analysis revealed substantial engagement with TikTok content, including 2,588,181 likes, 13,775 comments, and 21,254 shares.
• Account Characteristics: There were notable differences in the characteristics of content across different account types, such as official public health accounts, TikTok personal accounts (creators), and charity accounts.
• Engagement Levels: TikTok creators were found to be the most engaging and interactive, which correlated with their higher number of followers.
• Dialogic Loop: The presence of a dialogic loop, a key engagement measure, was observed across different content and account types.

Conclusions

While TikTok has been utilized for various public health purposes, including mental health awareness, the study highlighted that institutional accounts have not effectively engaged with the platform. The study also found differences in how TikTok accounts used platform features to interact with users.

The researchers emphasized the need for high-quality evaluations of TikTok content’s impact on public and mental health, especially considering its popularity among children and young people. They noted that TikTok presents a unique opportunity for youth mental health practitioners to connect with their target audience, but there is still much to learn about its functionality and effects on mental health.

The study also discussed concerns about the potential negative effects of social media on youth mental health, with TikTok being no exception. However, it highlighted the lack of specific clinical literature on TikTok use and the need for more comprehensive research in this area.

Despite these concerns, TikTok has acknowledged both the positive and negative aspects of its platform and has taken steps to address issues related to user well-being, such as providing resources for users seeking help with suicide-related content.

Overall, these results demonstrate the diversity of research topics related to TikTok and the varying levels of engagement across different types of TikTok accounts in the Irish context.

In conclusion, while TikTok has become a prominent platform for youth engagement, more research is needed to understand its impact on mental health and public health fully. As the platform continues to grow in popularity, addressing these research gaps becomes increasingly important in ensuring the well-being of young users.

The collaboration aimed to provide accessible, relevant, and beneficial mental support and guidance for children. The result of this unique partnership was the creation of “Breathe with Barbie“, a Vlog featuring the famous doll to guide children through the meditation and mindfulness practice. Barbie has five different audio guides that can be played through a click on her necklace.

The product was aimed at addressing the growing number of children diagnosed with anxiety. According to a research conducted between 2007 and 2012, the number of children between the ages of 6 and 17 diagnosed with anxiety has increased by 20 percent over time. The partners agreed that it is important to address this issue at an early age to prevent more severe conditions in the future.

A meaningful partnership

Headspace and Mattel’s joint efforts demonstrate how diverse industries can come together to create solutions that empower individuals to take control of their mental well-being. As the ‘Breathe with Barbie‘ initiative gains traction and helps children develop essential coping skills, it becomes clear that such partnerships hold the potential to make a lasting impact on the future of mental health.

By creating ‘Breathe with Barbie‘, the partners unveiled an unexpected solution, a Barbie doll that promotes mental health and mindfulness. The doll also educated children about the importance of mental health in their daily lives, and the method has proven to be effective in lowering the threshold to meditate. The teaching videos for meditation are also available on YouTube for free, making it accessible to all children, irrespective of their backgrounds.

By making mental health accessible through toys, Headspace, and Mattel aimed to lower the barrier and empower society to be in charge of their health and well-being.

In a world where the always-on lifestyle and external stressors can take a toll on mental health, initiatives like ‘Breathe with Barbie‘ highlight the importance of introducing mindfulness practices at an early age. As the partnership unfolded, it served as an inspiring example of how collaboration and innovation can shape a healthier and more resilient future for generations to come.

Source: www.businessmodelsinc.com

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mantra Health, the clinically-informed digital mental health provider for higher education, today announced an innovative new partnership with Charlie Health, the nation’s leading provider of virtual high-acuity mental healthcare for teens and young adults. Mantra Health will add Charlie Health’s industry-leading virtual intensive outpatient program (IOP) to its suite of mental health services, further expanding the levels of care available to students.

“Lack of access to IOP is a major cause of drop-out for students across the country who need a higher level of care,” said Matt Kennedy, co-founder and CEO of Mantra Health. “Our partnership with Charlie Health expands Mantra Health’s care continuum to solve this vexing problem for our patients and university partners alike. We’re going a step further by closing the care loop for our university partners through Mantra Health’s collaboration software, which will ultimately improve retention of students referred to IOP from our university partners.”

Through this first-of-its-kind partnership, Mantra Health will be able to seamlessly connect college and university students who require a higher level of mental healthcare to Charlie Health’s accessible, evidence-based treatment program. The 9-12 week-long virtual IOP consists of multiple weekly sessions of facilitated peer groups, individual therapy, and family therapy. The program is designed to be comprehensive yet flexible, allowing high-acuity patients to attend treatment remotely while maintaining their regular schedules. Charlie Health’s solution boasts significantly higher attendance rates than in-person sessions (91% vs. 65%), which has resulted in patients reporting fewer depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and self-harm at discharge.

“Charlie Health’s collaboration with Mantra comes at a time when the mental health of young people is of the utmost concern,” said Carter Barnhart, co-founder and CEO of Charlie Health. “We’re hopeful that our data-backed virtual solution will empower students who are facing mental health challenges during this pivotal time to seek out the level of care they need to be successful at school and beyond.”

If a student is deemed appropriate for IOP, they can be referred to Charlie Health via Mantra Health’s Collaboration Portal. This referral can be made by the institution’s clinicians or Mantra Health clinicians and care navigators. The treatment progress will then be securely tracked and reported to ensure outcomes transparency. Currently, Charlie Health operates in 25 states, including California, New York, Texas, Colorado, and Montana, and is actively expanding. The company proudly works with the nation’s leading health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Cigna, BlueCross BlueShield, and Optum, among others.

This partnership, coupled with the recent announcement of Mantra Health’s Whole Campus Care solution, which includes DBT-informed wellness content and coaching as well as peer-to-peer support through Togetherall, will further advance Mantra Health’s mission to bring more accessible, high-quality care to students across the country.

About Mantra Health

Mantra Health is an award-winning digital mental health provider for colleges and universities. On a mission to make evidence-based mental health care more accessible to students, Mantra Health partners with higher education institutions to provide undergraduate and graduate students with virtual therapy, psychiatry, crisis care, on-demand emotional support, peer-to-peer support, and wellness content. Through augmenting high-quality, evidence-based clinical services with seamless campus integration, Mantra Health aims to provide digital and clinical services to 40 million young adults. The company was named a Rising Star by the 2022 UCSF Health Hub Digital Health Awards in Mental & Behavioral Health. Mantra Health solutions have been deployed across more than 100 college and university campuses, including Penn State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Miami Dade College, and Cornell University, serving more than 800,000 students. To learn more about Mantra Health, visit mantrahealth.com.

About Charlie Health

Charlie Health is transforming the treatment landscape for teens and young adults with complex and acute mental health challenges by offering a level of care in between traditional once-weekly therapy and inpatient treatment. Since its founding in 2020, Charlie Health has established itself as the leading provider of virtual intensive outpatient programs (IOP) across 25 states. The company’s evidence-based treatment program is tailored to teens and young adults most at risk for mental health crises. The 10-12 week-long program includes multiple sessions a week of facilitated peer groups, and individual and family therapy. To learn more about Charlie Health, visit charliehealth.com.

Contacts

Media:

Colin Murphy on behalf of Mantra Health
413-233-8856
colin@thebelfortgroup.com

Sydney Bronstein
Charlie Health
312-330-5336
Sydney.bronstein@charliehealth.com

This milestone comes after we opened a conversation about how ready generative AI really is for mental health and noted that further work is required to build, test, and regulate any new technology that may be used in a healthcare setting. Here are some additional details regarding what we’ve been doing and thinking about over the last few months. 

While there are still some challenges when it comes to their generative abilities, we have observed that prompts that combine LLMs for understanding with human-composed responses provide the most improved therapeutic delivery. We’ll share more about the engineering approaches we developed along the way in an upcoming technical blog post. What we learn in this study will help us identify the use cases that are ready to be scaled and studied in future versions of our products. 

Science in the Loop

When people get sufficient access to CBT at the right time, they can make their own breakthroughs. But despite being the most widely recommended treatment for a range of common mental health problems, there has been minimal progress in making high-quality CBT radically accessible (engaging, personalized, available) or more potent in any systematic way. The last decade has seen a slew of digitized CBT products with outcomes rivaling those from traditional care, but we don’t seem to be able to move the needle on outcomes. Indeed, despite thousands of studies over the last 50 years, there has been no great advancement in the treatment and research of mental disorders. 

As with most big advances in medicine, it is not just the technology or the tool but their combination with emerging basic science and experimental methods that accelerates the field. Similarly, at Woebot Health, we are advancing our work on LLMs but in combination with experimental methods and a mechanistic framework of mental health to improve the product, experience, and outcomes. We’re calling this methodology Science in the Loop and believe it will speed up the delivery of highly engaging, safe, and efficacious solutions. 

Breakthroughs in oncology and other disease areas had similar histories, moving from one size fits all paradigms to ones where new tools allowed massive advances in understanding underlying mechanisms and the development of new products to target them. Access to targeted cancer treatments today seems normal, but 20 or 30 short years ago, medicine took a one-size-fits-all approach. Twenty percent of women with breast cancer used to follow treatments that failed. It wasn’t until the mechanism that characterized some of these tumors was discovered as having a genetic basis in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) that a range of transformative therapies was launched. Mental health is now at its own inflection point for precision. 

Because of the privileged position that Woebot has in people’s lives, the data we have gathered is a meaningful, rich, and ecologically valid reflection of users’ lived experience, i.e. a “real world” mapping of their experience. Our scientists can systematically identify factors—complex cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social—that interfere with their therapeutic journey. Then our expert clinicians and translational scientists are the humans in the loop that create treatment adaptations to target those mechanisms. Using this approach, we recently found that baseline resilience was a significant predictor of outcome change in an 8-week study of our adult product (see the recently published paper here).

We’re honored to be in a position to take advantage of some of the greatest leaps in technology that the world has seen. As we continue to mature in our application of LLMs to drive improved engagement and outcomes, we are also excited to see what advances we can make within the field of psychotherapy itself, and to unravel novel mechanisms underpinned by new interactional capabilities. As we continue to infuse science in the loop of our utilization of LLMs, we’ll continue doing what science does best: designing rigorous studies and sharing those results with the broader community so we may build this new paradigm, together.

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#alzheimers—Linus Health, a digital health company focused on early detection of Alzheimer’s and other dementias, today announced the results of two new studies that further demonstrate the ability of digital cognitive assessments to identify early signs of cognitive impairment and dementia. The findings, which researchers will present at the American Academy of Neurology’s (AAN) 75th Annual Meeting, show that digital, AI-enhanced assessments can play a major role in helping providers efficiently assess older patients’ cognitive function and intervene early in the face of issues – a rising need as new treatments targeting early-stage Alzheimer’s disease become available.

Both studies focused on cognitive assessments that primarily evaluate patients’ performance on tasks involving drawing. Drawing tests have long been a proven means of evaluating cognitive function; traditionally administered with pencil and paper, digital alternatives offer a more practical route to expanding cognitive testing in primary care. Leveraging AI, Linus Health’s iPad-based DCTclock has been shown to not only offer streamlined administration, but also greater sensitivity than traditional tests in a fraction of the time.

“Our latest research reinforces that the new generation of cognitive assessments not only deliver the benefits of a digital format, but also expands on them by using AI to surface subtle signs of cognitive impairment not visible to the human eye,” said David Bates, PhD, CEO of Linus Health. “Providers and patients alike are looking to Leqembi and future Alzheimer’s drugs with hope and interest, but providers need modern tools to help them efficiently identify and triage people who can benefit from them.”

Building on a rich foundation of existing research, one of the new studies, Reliability of Tablet-Based Digital Clock Drawing Task (DCTclock) for Automated Detection of Cognitive Impairment, further validated DCTclock’s utility as a sensitive, fast, and accurate tool for early detection of cognitive impairment. Focusing on reliability in this study, researchers found that the digital assessment offers good test-retest reliability among both cognitively unimpaired and cognitively impaired individuals, supporting its use in monitoring cognitive health in clinical settings. Researchers will share the full findings at AAN on April 24th during a poster session from 5:30-6:30 p.m. ET.

The second study, Automated Drawing Process Metrics for Evaluating Cognitive Impairment from Human Drawing Behavior, looked at the impact of incorporating the Boston Process Approach (BPA) for neuropsychological testing into additional digital assessments. Already central to DCTclock, AI-enabled BPA analyzes a person’s process of completing tasks, not just the end result, for greater insights into cognitive function. Researchers found that process-based measures were beneficial in distinguishing between individuals with and without cognitive impairment using the four assessments studied; the analysis revealed differences between the groups on key measures like drawing speed and time spent thinking versus drawing or writing. Researchers will present the findings on April 24th during the Innovative Diagnostics in Dementia session from 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET.

“Most individuals with dementia aren’t diagnosed until it is too late for many intervention strategies to make a significant difference,” said Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer at Linus Health and Medical Director of the Wolk Center for Memory Health at Hebrew SeniorLife. “These new studies further show the ability for advanced AI-enabled digital tools to spot the earliest signs of cognitive dysfunction and maximize the available options for patients.”

The AAN Annual Meeting is happening in Boston and online from April 22-27, 2023. If you would like to meet with a researcher involved in these studies, please contact Karina Stabile at kstabile@ariamarketing.com.

About Linus Health

Linus Health is a Boston-based digital health company focused on transforming brain health for people across the world. By advancing how we detect and address cognitive and brain disorders – leveraging cutting-edge neuroscience, clinical expertise, and artificial intelligence – our goal is to enable a future where people can live longer, happier, and healthier lives with better brain health. Linus Health’s digital cognitive assessment platform delivers a proven, practical means of enabling early detection; empowers providers with actionable clinical insights; and supports individuals with personalized action plans. We are proud to partner with leading healthcare delivery organizations, research institutions, and life sciences companies to accelerate more proactive intervention and personalized care in brain health. To learn more about our practical solutions for proactive brain health, visit www.linushealth.com.

Contacts

Media
Karina Stabile
Senior Account Executive
Aria Marketing for Linus Health
516-317-5835
kstabile@ariamarketing.com

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mantra Health, a clinically informed digital mental health provider for colleges and universities, announced a series of milestones that mark a new era of growth for the company. This month, Mantra Health launched a suite of new products, which includes dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) self-guided content and emotional wellness coaching resources for students; partnered with Togetherall to incorporate a high-quality peer-to-peer support network into their suite of services; and secured $5 million in a Series A extension round of funding from returning investors to set the course for its exponential growth.

“We set out to create the most comprehensive and effective mental health and wellness services for higher education,” said Mantra Health Co-Founder Matt Kennedy. “With this expansion, we are responding to a desire for an innovative, integrated campus mental health experience, bringing our mission of providing accessible, equitable, and high-quality solutions with a complete turn-key product for our university partners with the dual goals of improving student success while managing risk.”

Expansion of Services and Togetherall Partnership

Mantra Health’s new Whole Campus Care service allows access to comprehensive mental health services that support students across every stage of their mental health journey. Whole Campus Care offers teletherapy, telepsychiatry, and 24/7 emotional wellness support services. New services include a first-of-its-kind DBT Self-Guided Skills program that teaches mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness via curated skill collections, video lessons and journal reflections. All DBT content is designed by Dr. Carla Chugani, Mantra Health’s Vice President of Clinical Content and Affairs, and one of the world’s foremost experts in DBT as it applies to college students.

The platform’s additions encourage the adoption of skill-building programs through a new coaching service. These coaching programs, which have been proven to enhance engagement and improve outcomes, provide short-term and goal-oriented intervention and are available regardless of a student’s location nationwide.

“At Mantra, we remain firmly committed to providing clinically informed services that provide young adults with the highest quality of care,” said Dr. Chugani. “Our DBT program meets students and young adults where they are with what they need. We will also work with campuses on student activation and engagement, ensuring that students not only know about the product, but use them effectively and with successful outcomes.”

The Whole Campus Care service includes a unique partnership with Togetherall, the leading digital peer-to-peer support community with 24/7 clinical moderation and oversight, to provide students with a high-quality, clinically rigorous well-being ecosystem of mental health care, all accessible within an integrated patient experience.

The mission-aligned organizations have joined together to bring students a more integrated and comprehensive mental health solution. Through Togetherall’s anonymous, peer-to-peer support community, which is overseen and moderated 24/7 by licensed clinicians, students will give and get support from their peers. If desired, they will also have the chance to connect to Mantra Health’s clinical services, such as therapy, psychiatry, and on-demand behavioral health support, which includes crisis care.

“We’re proud to partner with an industry leader like Mantra Health and to open our safe online community to even more college students,” said Matthew McEvoy, Togetherall’s President and General Manager in North America. “Through this integration, we’re connecting hundreds of thousands of students from all backgrounds and providing them the safe space they need to confide in and support one another through anonymous yet personal connections.”

Both Mantra Health and Togetherall are dedicated to serving students of all backgrounds, including underrepresented students, students with disabilities, and those identifying as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) and/or LGBTQIA+. Togetherall has experience working with traditionally marginalized student groups and those who don’t feel comfortable help-seeking. Mantra Health offers a diverse, specialized group of providers, so students can match with clinicians who understand their cultural backgrounds and lived experiences.

$5 Million in New Funding

The significance of this work has been validated by Mantra’s investors, including its Series A lead investor VMG Partners, who led a syndicate of internal investors, adding $5 million in Series A extension funding to support this expansion of services, bringing the company’s total fundraise to-date to over $34 million.

“We’re pleased to see the incredible value that Mantra Health is providing to their college and university partners,” said Khira Gabliani of VMG Partners. “We continue to invest in Mantra because we believe it is ideally positioned to provide a much-needed service for students in need.”

With this additional funding, Mantra will increase its research and development capacity to develop innovative, effective mental health products for higher education. Mantra will continue to offer its Capacity Expansion solution, a high-quality clinical staffing product for college counseling centers, maintaining a campus-tailored care solution with an exclusive provider group for institutions looking to augment their counseling services.

About Mantra Health:

Mantra Health is an award-winning digital mental health provider for colleges and universities. On a mission to make evidence-based mental health care more accessible to students, Mantra Health partners with higher education institutions and health insurance plans to provide undergraduate and graduate students with virtual therapy, psychiatry, crisis care, and wellness content. Through augmenting high-quality, evidence-based clinical services with seamless campus integration, Mantra Health aims to provide digital and clinical services to 40 million young adults. The company was named a Rising Star by the 2022 UCSF Health Hub Digital Health Awards in Mental & Behavioral Health. Mantra Health solutions have been deployed across more than 100 college and university campuses, including Penn State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Miami Dade College, and Cornell University, serving more than 800,000 students.

About Togetherall:

Togetherall is the clinically moderated, online community where students give and get support on concerns affecting their mental health. Students share what’s on their minds, anonymously, safely, and in the moment with peers who have similar lived experiences. Togetherall provides an unmatched level of clinical rigor. All our online moderators are licensed mental health clinicians, ensuring 24/7 oversight of our peer-to-peer community and immediate risk-detection and clinical intervention, if the need arises. Over 4.6 million students from more than 400 institutions worldwide already have access to Togetherall with the majority of students joining experiencing feelings of depression and/or anxiety. More than one-third of students reported that Togetherall was their only source of mental health support. Registrant data reflected the diversity of the community, with 51% identifying as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC), and 5% identifying as transgender or gender non-conforming.

Contacts

Colin Murphy, colin@thebelfortgroup.com, 413-233-8856

November 8, 2022 ROME | Angelini Ventures, a global venture capital firm with a €300M commitment to invest in and create transformative healthcare companies, announced its investment in an online mental health platform, Serenis. Serenis is focused on facilitating access to digital tools and quality psychotherapy to make mental health care an accessible daily practice.  

Mental health is a key investment area for Angelini Ventures. The investment group already funds innovative life sciences companies focused on finding novel therapies for patients suffering from mental illnesses.

The last few years have put a spotlight on mental health. Serenis provides a unique platform that matches patients in need with certified therapists. Our investment provides an opportunity to expand Angelini Ventures’ mental health focus with a digital health solution”, says Elia Stupka, Managing Director of Angelini Ventures, who joins the board of directors of Serenis as part of the investment.

Serenis, founded by Silvia Wang and Daniele Francescon, uses technology in support of the mental health therapeutic relationship between providers and patients, by leveraging data analytics to match providers with patients. Being digital allows the Serenis solution to not only break down barriers that prevent people from accessing psychotherapy, but also to improve the therapy itself, thanks to the impact of data analysis.

Angelini Ventures co-led a €2.7M extension of seed round funding in Serenis. The round included FG2 Capital, Lumen Ventures, Azimut Digitech Fund, Invictus Capital and various business angels. This investment brings Serenis’ fundraising total to €6.5 million, less than a year after its inception. The funds raised will be used to support the growth of the company, launching new platform features, investing in awareness around the topic of mental health.

We are thrilled to have Angelini Ventures onboard,” says Silvia Wang, CEO and founder of Serenis, “this investment is a recognition of the work of the Serenis team around the quality of the therapist network and our technology. We’re confident that sharing the path with an experienced life-sciences and digital health investor like Angelini Ventures will make it possible to pursue our vision of making quality mental health support accessible.

We are excited to have Serenis in our digital health portfolio and to partner with their team to help bring true scale and innovation to the mental health ecosystem in Italy and Europe” says Filippo Piazza, Investment Associate at Angelini Ventures who takes on an observer board seat in Serenis.

For more information about Serenis, please visit  www.serenis.it

LONDON – LifeWorks, a leading provider of comprehensive mental health, digital and in-person total wellbeing solutions, announced the acquisition of Breaking Free, a provider of evidence-based behavioural health SaaS solutions for substance use intervention.

Today’s acquisition supports the strategic direction to grow the capability offered by the LifeWorks platform and enhances the mental health and total wellbeing offerings to care for individuals that need support for both substance use and other mental health concerns.

We are pleased to welcome the Breaking Free team to LifeWorks. Breaking Free’s digital platform and substance intervention expertise is a perfect complement to the overall LifeWorks suite of client services and solutions. Culturally, this acquisition is an excellent fit with our values of long-term relationships, treating others the way we want to be treated, and being innovative and entrepreneurial. As one of the most trusted mental health providers, our clients know they can come to us as a one-stop-shop for critical mental health and wellbeing solutions. Our purpose is to improve lives and the addition of Breaking Free ensures we will reach even more organisations and their people in need. – said Neil King, president, integrated health solutions and executive vice president, LifeWorks

This acquisition will accelerate LifeWorks growth, over time, by adding substance use solutions to its platform and making these available to the more than 25,000 client organisations that already rely on LifeWorks mental health and wellbeing services.

The Canadian Mental Health Association estimates that five per cent of the world’s population has used an illicit substance. More than six million people in Canada, 20 million people in the United States and approximately 10 million people in the United Kingdom have a substance use disorder (SUD) – all with limited options to access affordable care.

Key highlights of the acquisition include:

• The addition of Breaking Free’s solution in substance use intervention to the LifeWorks platform will result in further enhancing the mental health service clients can seamlessly access through the LifeWorks wellbeing platform – a leading solution for integrated digital treatment for co-occurring mental health concerns;
• LifeWorks and Breaking Free both share a deep commitment to effective digital healthcare, as well as trusted research and insights that demonstrate strong clinical effectiveness of their programs;
• LifeWorks and Breaking Free will continue delivering uninterrupted support to Breaking Free’s clients in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, spanning public health agencies, treatment providers and correctional facilities;
• Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Breaking Free’s highly experienced team will join LifeWorks; and
• Expanding into the addiction treatment market is a strategic priority for LifeWorks, allowing the company to bolster its mental health capabilities and expand its solutions across the continuum of care.

Breaking Free’s solutions include:

• A broad range of recovery-oriented resources, behaviour change techniques and interventions that strengthen digital and in-person counselling, therapy, medication and other treatments for SUD, and can be used either independently by the patient or in conjunction with a mental health professional or their physician;
• Digital therapy that enables recovery from dependence on alcohol and more than 70 drugs;
• Self-guided digital treatment for substance-involved inmates in correctional facilities;
• Clinically robust public health interventions that address smoking, problem drinking and drug dependence on a population-wide scale; and
• Extensive research and insights that demonstrate the clinical effectiveness of Breaking Free’s programs, with 36 peer-reviewed studies and five government accreditations.

This acquisition represents less than one per cent of LifeWorks revenue and is not expected to have a material impact on the company’s financial performance in 2022.