Local mental health startup expands into youth program
To help meet the growing demand for mental health services for children and teens, a Capital Region-based mental health startup is looking to expand its programs to serve patients ages 5-17.
Aptihealth’s virtual mental health platform began with a pilot of six mental health providers in 2019 but took off during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company now boasts more than 200 providers, partners with 20 different insurance providers and the region’s two major hospital systems and has logged over 10,000 patient referrals from across the state.
The youth program, headed by Dr. Kevin Martin, a child and adolescent psychiatrist
and former chief medical officer at Four Winds in Saratoga Springs, currently serves 500 children and teens.
The mental health crisis among teens predates COVID-19, but the upheaval caused by the pandemic has exacerbated the problems and there are not nearly enough providers available to meet the need, according to Martin.
Between 2009 to 2019, the share of American high school students who reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased by 40 percent, to more than 1 in 3 students, according to annual surveys from the Centers for Disease Control.
“We had this tremendous problem before the pandemic,” Martin said. “At most, half of kids and adolescents needing care were getting care at all, and a smaller number than that were getting good care ... With something like Aptihealth, what we have is more access.”
The virtual therapy format bypasses many of the socioeconomic barriers that prevent troubled young people from getting the care they need. For parents of multiple children, for example, it may come down to issues with transportation and child care. Finding mental health services in rural parts of the state is especially difficult, according to Martin.
There is also a stigma around mental illness in many communities and many children and teens resist going to therapy. But many young people find they are more comfortable opening up to a counselor or doctor from the comfort and privacy of their bedrooms, Martin said.
Unlike other online therapy platforms, Aptihealth partners directly with local hospitals and insurance companies to provide immediate support to patients — including those requiring more integrated, complex care — which in turn keeps patients out of emergency departments and hospitals, according to Aptihealth founder and local psychologist Dan Pickett.
“If it is a severe crisis, (requiring a visit) to the emergency department, we recommend that,” Pickett said. “But if the patient is not sure, we encourage them to call us first — we are available around the clock — and we will help triage that and help them decide if they should go to the hospital. So the relationship goes both ways,” Pickett said.
Locally there is a dire shortage of mental health providers and only a select few work with children and adolescents with severe mental health needs. Aptihealth hires mental health professionals from around the country, which gives patients more access and flexibility in scheduling, according to Pickett.
“The shortage of mental health specialists is a national and global challenge now,” Pickett said. “Our strategy at Aptihealth is to be the company that brings those providers all of the tools they need to be successful. We are heavily focused on the best providers and best care and giving providers all of the tools they need to do the best care they can.”
Aptihealth’s providers, who have access to the patient’s medical history, conduct a screening and assessment. A care team is built around that assessment, including a therapist, a prescriber, a primary care physician if there are medical comorbidities, a peer, and a care coordinator to make sure all of the activities are coordinated.
The company is in the process of constructing an in-person site in Clifton Park to provide medical and psychiatric services that must be performed in a clinical setting.
“Our model is virtual first, not virtual-only,” Pickett said. “What we can do is put a care plan in place that allows virtual wherever it makes sense and limits the amount of in-person care to where that (model) makes sense.”