Key Takeaways from Behavioral Health Tech 2024

Andy Keller (with microphone), the president and CEO of the Meadows Institute, shared his expertise about the importance of the continuity of care for people with mental health needs.

Over three days in Phoenix in early November, leaders in the mental health field came together at Behavioral Health Tech 2024, the nation’s premier conference dedicated to expanding access to mental health care through technology and innovation.

Among the national experts in attendance, the Meadows Institute had several featured speakers, including Andy Keller, Kacie Kelly, Andrew Carlo, and John Snook. Many of the conversations centered on key themes: the importance of early identification of mental health challenges, the opportunities to integrate mental health care with primary care, the impact of the psychiatric Collaborative Care Model (CoCM), an industry-wide focus on measurement-informed care and data to improve outcomes, and opportunities to bolster and extend the workforce. Here are the top takeaways from the sessions:

STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING THE SUICIDE EPIDEMIC: In a thoughtful conversation about a difficult and emotional subject, Andrew Carlo, the chief science officer for the Meadows Institute, offered insights into how behavioral health clinicians can help primary care providers and pediatricians detect potential concerns in patients and efficiently connect them with crisis support and treatment services.

“Health systems, payers, and clinicians around the country are increasingly addressing suicide,” Carlo said. “It is of paramount importance for leading research institutions like the NIH to continue to promote research focused on the early detection and management of suicide risk. Additionally, it is critical for evidence-based integrated care models like the Collaborative Care Model to continue to be scaled nationwide.”

In addition, industry partners such as NeuroFlow are employing innovative approaches like risk stratification and large language models to identify high-risk patients and quickly provide crisis support, while also engaging patients in evidence-based models like CoCM  and enhancing the skills of primary care providers.

FLORIDA’S BLUEPRINT FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH INNOVATION: Florida’s business community has engaged in expanding mental health services in a transformative way, demonstrating that employers have a vital role to play in ensuring that people have the mental health supports to thrive. Kacie Kelly, the chief innovation officer at the Meadows Institute, moderated a panel on Florida’s progress and how the Florida Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders are championing mental health to support a “mosaic of solutions” across the state.

Said Katie Yeutter, the COO and CFO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce: “We commissioned a massive report on what the world will look like in 2030 and what would it take for Florida to be the tenth largest economy in the world.” A business-led initiative, the goals are measured by data that the Chamber transparently tracks on its Florida Scorecard.   As part of this work, the Meadows Institute worked with the Florida Chamber to release 25 policy and practice recommendations that when implemented will position Florida among the top five healthiest states in the U.S.

“We were encouraged by the business community’s interest in youth and early intervention,” Kelly said. “They recognized that if children are struggling, employees aren’t showing up for work that day.” The work integrated the role of pediatricians and schools to increase access to mental health services and address underlying issues.

“The work also allows us to address the entire pipeline of workforce, both current and future,” said Yeutter. As such, Florida’s plan serves as a model for all states wanting to support their residents with a business-led approach to strengthening mental health.

NAVIGATING THE IMPACT OF REGULATIONS ON TREATING SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER: Because policy decisions at all levels can shape access to behavioral health care, it was natural that the recent presidential election was an important topic of discussion.

When asked how the landscape might change with a new administration, John Snook, the chief policy officer of the Meadows Institute, stressed the bipartisan nature of mental health on Capitol Hill: “One of the things I come back to in conversations about behavioral health and SUD is that these illnesses don’t care who you voted for. When elected officials get calls from constituents–about a kid, a family member, or a loved one who has an SUD issue or a behavioral health issue–it’s one of the bipartisan issues where people expect them to get things done.”

Of course, serious issues remain. As Nick Mercadante, the founder and CEO of PursueCare, a telehealth provider, noted, “Fifty states, fifty regs.” Given so many different sets of regulations across the country, he expressed the desire for greater consistency for funding and the expansion of access to care. Decisions must be based on science, and in many ways that would mean loosening restrictions.

Just as important are workforce issues, which impact the entire system. “The reality is that the need for quality behavioral health care far outstrips the capacity of the work force,” said Snook. “We need to open up the workforce and reduce licensing burdens, increase payments to providers, and expand integrated care. The urgency of making sure we have a workforce that can provide the care is not in line with the size of the issue.”

ENSURING CONTINUITY OF CARE FOR SEAMLESS PATIENT JOURNEYS: The goal of mental health care is to be patient-centric and provide the best treatment options possible. To make that happen, it is essential for health care systems to provide effective and efficient continuity of care, working to align goals with both the patient and the clinical team working to provide treatment.

Often the responsibility to identify needs and seek treatment falls on the patient or the patient’s family. But with mental health care increasingly becoming integrated into physical care, opportunities for early identification and effective treatment are increasing.

“I love that we now believe that mental health is physical health,” said Andy Keller, the president and CEO of the Meadows Institute. “It feels the same, right? But while rates of death from heart disease and cancer are going down, people still wait ten to eleven years with their mental health symptoms because our health care system makes you and your family figure out that you are sick. This is a pediatric illness, and we don’t want to believe that our kids have a chronic illness. That’s why early intervention is essential to effective treatment.”

Equally important is the need to break down existing barriers, including ensuring that clinicians collect and use routine measurement to inform care decisions. As Keller pointed out, only 19 percent of psychiatrists are collecting standardized information, which makes it difficult to track outcomes and ensure continuity of care.

“We have to confront the fact that it is abysmal that we allow our profession to work that way,” Keller said. One solution Keller pointed to would be an investment by the government and private sectors to build the technology infrastructure to extend and bolster our workforce, so more people in need have access to high quality mental health care when and where they need it.