More than three quarters of parents are extremely or somewhat worried about their kids struggling with anxiety or depression, according to a recent survey from Pew Research Center.

That’s why digital mental health company Spring Health decided to expand its Family Care solution, the company announced last week. The New York City-based company sells to employers and health plans and offers meditation, coaching, therapy, medication and other services. It serves more than 4,500 employers, including General Mills, Bain, DocuSign and Instacart. The company uses technology called precision mental healthcare, which collects data on factors like family history, social determinants of health and diagnostic criteria to provide personalized care recommendations for patients.

Spring Health’s Family Care solution previously only served children ages 6 and older and their parents. It offers access to Moments, which is a collection of resources for navigating challenges like parenting and managing anxiety. Now, the new expanded Family Care solution serves kids of all ages. It also assigns each family a designated care navigator, who can provide personalized care options like coaching for new parents, resources for caring for infants and therapy for teens struggling with anxiety, eating disorders or substance use disorder. 

In addition, the solution includes the Family Care Dashboard, where parents and caregivers can view and manage kids’ care and schedule appointments using filter options like condition, specialty, ethnicity, gender and language.

Spring Health chose to advance its Family Care solution after noticing a major need for additional family support services.

“We recognize the current mental health crisis is impacting family members – teens, children, aging family members, caregivers – as profoundly as it is impacting employees and workplaces,” said April Koh, CEO and co-founder of Spring Health, in an email. “Studies show that more than 75% of parents are worried about their child’s mental health, but only half of the children who need care receive treatment. To address the barriers to care that many families face, we created a personalized, easy-to-use dashboard to manage mental health support for the entire family. Family Navigators provide guidance and recommendations for users of all ages, eliminating many of the complexities associated with finding and receiving care.”

Indeed, more than 11% of youth in the U.S. are experiencing severe major depression, but 60% of youth with major depression do not receive mental health treatment, according to a report from Mental Health America. In addition, one in 10 youth with private insurance don’t have coverage for mental or emotional difficulties, the same report shows. This is what Spring Health wants to change.

“Our goal at Spring Health is to eliminate every barrier to mental health,” Koh said.

While Koh did not name any competitors, other mental health companies that serve employers include Headspace Health and Lyra Health, which also support children. Koh said that what sets Spring Health apart from other mental health providers is its precision healthcare technology.

“Unlike how mental healthcare has historically been provided, Precision Mental Healthcare pinpoints and delivers exactly the right treatment fit for each person — whether that’s digital support, meditation exercises, coaching, therapy, medication, or beyond,” Koh declared. “There are over 200 mental health diagnoses and over 200 care modalities and options for treatment. However, without Precision Mental Healthcare, the first attempted treatment fails 70% of the time. This simply isn’t acceptable with so many people facing mental health challenges today.” 

Photo:boonchai wedmakawand, Getty Images