David Ko

It will require a fundamental shift in how we view and approach health care as a whole. It’s critical to realize that mental and physical health are deeply interconnected. Physical health issues can often trigger mental health challenges, and when someone is struggling mentally, they may be less likely to engage in behaviors that promote good physical health, resulting in a vicious cycle.

Moving forward, we need more collaboration with our healthcare providers—and technology. Primary care physicians don’t often screen for mental health challenges because they lack clear pathways for referring patients to the appropriate types of mental health services. We need to encourage a mindset shift that says they’re on par with one another. Going for a regular mental health checkup should be as routine as your annual physical.

David Ko

That approach can lead to worse care for patients and higher costs for everyone involved, including payers and the healthcare system. In the U.S., six out of 10 adults have a chronic disease, and four out of 10 have two or more. Physical health issues can come with mental health challenges. Depression is common with diabetes, anxiety is common with IBS, and both anxiety and depression are common with cancer patients.

When a mental health condition is comorbid with a chronic health condition, the total cost of care can increase by a factor of two to eight times. At Calm, we’ve recognized this, and we work with experts to create programs that specifically help people manage the mental health aspects of conditions like diabetes and heart disease. It’s a step in the right direction, but meaningful change can only happen when the entire health care system is on board.

David Ko

Calm Health is designed to take the overwhelming guesswork out of getting the right level of mental health support through an in-app mental health screening and user input of existing health conditions.

Based on a person’s results, they may be directed to a Calm Health clinical program, which includes content written by psychologists. For more support, they may be navigated to benefits available through their health plan such as coaching or therapy or free external resources like 988 or NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).

We have built a robust library of clinical programs to support people through mental health conditions, physical health conditions, and even life experience. Our clinical programs alone are addressing gaps in the type of mental health support readily available to people today.

What truly sets us apart is the brand trust we have built with Calm. That consumer trust has carried over into how people interact with Calm Health, helping us drive high engagement and follow-through. Engagement is often a challenge in healthcare, but 93 percent of registered Calm Health users complete our mental health screening and 53 percent go on to start a clinical program based on our recommendation.

David Ko

Even though mental health is the most approachable that it’s ever been in the U.S., there’s still a stigma. Nearly a third of Americans today worry they’ll be judged when they tell others that they’ve sought mental health services.

Another critical element is access. Demand is far outpacing supply in mental health care. Today, 56 percent of therapists have no new openings for patients, and the average wait time to see a therapist in the U.S. is over six weeks. Sixty percent of the counties in the U.S. don’t have a single psychiatrist. So often we focus on larger cities, but mental health affects everyone. This is where technology like Calm can make a difference. You start to meet people where they are: on their phones. Then, by partnering with organizations and healthcare providers, we can give them the support they need at little to no cost. Early results from one of our national payer partnerships show 78 percent of people who engaged with Calm Health are from hard-to-reach and underserved populations, which is incredibly meaningful when we talk about expanding access.

David Ko

One in three people who are diagnosed with life-changing illnesses will experience symptoms of depression. Unfortunately, when most people receive their physical health care plan after a diagnosis, the mental health aspect of their care is overlooked, which can lead to poor health outcomes. One way Calm addresses this is by creating condition-specific content programs to help people navigate emotional and mental health challenges that come with a diagnosis so you don’t have to do it alone. Having experts create content programs specifically for people living with heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, or cancer means you can meet people where they are. We’ve found that people who use Calm Health are twice as likely to engage in necessary outpatient mental health care compared to people who don’t.

David Ko

Engagement is really the key, and you need diverse content to drive strong engagement. We’re all on different mental health journeys, so we create highly personalized programs that resonate with broad groups of people. When we think about developing programs, we want to help people with specific experiences they may be going through—navigating the challenges of getting older, managing stress for teens and students, facing infertility challenges, or raising LGBTQ youth, just to name a few. We’re also proud as a company that over 45 percent of Calm’s narrators today are BIPOC.

David Ko

Measuring the effectiveness of mental health interventions can be challenging because there are so many tools out there today. That’s why one of our highest priorities as a company is to deliver effective evidence-based tools. We work closely with licensed psychologists to develop our clinical programs, and we’re diligent about building evidence-based libraries in everything that we offer. Calm Health is also HIPAA-compliant, which allows us to track health outcomes over time at an individual level. This data is crucial for our partners to be able to deliver the most effective care for their patients and track both physical and mental health outcomes after using our tools.

David Ko

The approachability of mental health has been huge, thanks in part to social media. If you look at the Olympics, athletes openly discuss their mental health challenges, and it’s helped to normalize the conversation. I love the fact that my children talk about their mental health. There’s a dialogue happening that hasn’t happened before. I’m hopeful seeing all the progress we’ve made so far. Hand in hand with this is support and education for younger generations. To make progress in the mental health crisis, we have to build supportive systems for the generations that are our future.