The health benefits platform Accolade has partnered with on-demand mental health care company Ginger to address the developing mental health crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The partnership seeks to integrate mental and physical health care for companies and their employees. It allows Ginger to offer access to virtual therapy, psychiatry, mental health coaching, and resources through Accolade’s cloud-based technologies.
Using Accolade’s data and AI capabilities, the new Mental Health Integrated Care solution can identify employees at risk for mental health issues. Taking a proactive approach, Accolade’s health support team can then reach out to these individuals. Teams from Ginger work with the member’s primary care provider to design coordinated, personalized care plans. These plans combine Ginger’s on-demand services with physical health protocols, such as medication and treatment for related physical and emotional concerns.
By treating mental and physical health issues within the same platform and point-of-access, Accolade and Ginger seek to destigmatize depression, anxiety, and other mental health concerns. They also hope to gain a better understanding of the connection between physical, emotional, and mental health. The Mental Health Integrated Care solution includes clinical tracking across all risk-levels, pre- and post-assessment data, and scoring data from specific anxiety and depression assessment tools. The solution leverages this data for risk identification and treatment recommendations.
Providing accessible, personalized, on-demand care and proactive support could help to address the stressful effects that 2020 has had on the U.S. workforce. Ginger has seen a drastic increase in demand for its services in 2020. The company released a 2020 Workforce Attitudes Toward Mental Health Report showing that weekly use of the platform for therapy and psychiatry skyrocketed 280% during August of this year compared to pre-COVID-19 averages.
Organizations such as Temple Health — a clinical and academic health system affiliated with Temple University in Philadelphia — have already adopted The Mental Health Integrated Care solution. Eventually, more than 1.7 million Accolade members stand to benefit from the integrated platform.
