Navigate the healthcare industry
Healthcare Brew covers pharmaceutical developments, health startups, the latest tech, and how it impacts hospitals and providers to keep administrators and providers informed.
A new virtual psychiatric urgent care for children and young adults hopes to help parents stop bending over backward to find mental health care for their children.
Madison, Wisconsin-based Bend Health, founded in 2021, provides pediatric mental health care via telehealth. Now, it’s expanding its services with Psych Urgent Care, which provides nationwide access to therapy and psychiatry services up to 48 hours of a referral for patients under 25. The company announced the news at healthcare conference HLTH in Las Vegas on October 22.
The idea is to help young patients having a mental health crisis avoid the emergency room (ER). Between 2015 and 2020, emergency room visits for pediatric mental health increased 43%, according to a JAMA Pediatrics study published in December 2022. And by the end of 2023, 40% of students surveyed reported experiencing “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” according to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a national survey representative of high school-aged adolescents.
Having too many patients turning to the ER can then lead to boarding, where patients have to wait in the ER for an inpatient bed to become available.
“This was designed to be able to give access to kids, teens, and young adults who are suffering with a crisis episode, and they are the ones who really need access today,” Monika Roots, president and co-founder of Bend Health, said onstage at HLTH. “This allows us to really address a crisis that historically has not had a good solution.”
Care connection. To get an appointment for the psychiatric urgent care service, patients must have a referral from their health plan, primary care, or specialty provider. The care is covered by “participating health plans,” which so far only includes UnitedHealthcare, though Bend is working to expand access through more plans, according to a release.
Once referred, clinicians can assess the patient, and this usually happens that same day in a virtual visit, according to the company. Patients have access to services related to crisis stabilization, suicidal ideation, self-harm, aggression, and severe panic attacks. Per the release, they also receive care plans to decide on next steps, which could include intensive outpatient care or a neuropsychological evaluation.
Roots said patients can then transition to Bend Health’s Acute Stabilization program, which treats patients with therapy and medication management for up to 12 weeks.
“This allows us to provide a true continuum of care, so they can focus on not just getting better, but long-term outcomes, so they can really learn the skills and have the resilience to really manage whatever the world chooses to throw their way,” Roots said.