With more than 20,000 apps available to address myriad mental health challenges with varying degrees of support, it’s clear that digital mental health is experiencing a boom. But there seems to be little consensus regarding the true role that digital therapeutics can and should play within the greater context of a patient’s mental health care journey. In order to better articulate this role, we need to take a person-centered view and understand how digital therapeutics can help people not just in moments of need, but over the course of a lifetime.
The Goal of Radical Accessibility
At present, there are many multifaceted barriers to care that can prevent people from receiving the quality of care needed in order to make true progress. According to a Harvard Business Review article, nearly 40% of the United States live in areas designated by the federal government as having a shortage of mental health professionals. Over 60% of United States counties don’t have a psychiatrist within their borders.
The episodic nature of traditional in-person therapy and even first-generation digital therapeutics has led to gaps in care for not only the medically underserved but also more privileged patient groups who have not historically been thought of as experiencing barriers to care. Even those who are lucky enough to have found a therapist or digital solution likely do not have access to the type of round-the-clock care that would allow them to receive help on demand.
These barriers have been fortified during the COVID-19 pandemic era— and they’re behind the surge in digital therapeutics use. Both those who can’t find or afford a therapist but need immediate help, and those who use digital tools as a complement to human delivered care have come to rely more heavily on digital mental health.
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Source: Hitconsultant
