Mental health support is for all of us. The latest milestone in our journey to revolutionize care

While 1 in 5 people have a diagnosed mental health condition, 83% of us deal with regular stress. Like managing a new boss. Going through a divorce. Returning to work as a new parent. An illness in the family. These are all situations that we’re familiar with, whether it’s through first-hand experience or from the outside in. 

But while most people experience stress, our research shows that only 26 percent seek help. As our society finally begins to talk about real issues in mental health and address the stigma, we have a pivotal opportunity to re-define what support looks like and who can benefit from it. At Ginger, we believe that the answer is everyone. 

You don’t need to be living with a diagnosed mental health condition to benefit from support. And that support doesn’t always have to be in the form of traditional therapy. Behavioral health coaching has emerged in recent years as a new form of care to help people address day-to-day stress, anxiety and depression. In fact, just last week, the American Medical Association approved new codes for health and well-being coaching. Coaching is a foundational element of our behavioral health system at Ginger, even for those who need escalated support from a therapist or psychiatrist. We find that when we provide someone with on-demand access to a coach, they’re able to better identify their struggles, set goals and achieve them. By taking a preventative approach, we are catching issues upstream before they evolve into acute illness. 90% of our members don’t need a therapist or psychiatrist added to their care team, and over 70 percent of members report a significant reduction in symptoms of depression within 12 weeks. This is twice as effective as the leading collaborative care study. 

Earlier this year, we made a critical investment in supporting our behavioral health coaching program with the acquisition of assets from Lantern, a proven leader in evidence-based mental health education and computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (CCBT). This week at HLTH, we’re excited to reveal an entirely new content experience within our app that brings Lantern’s leading CCBT into the Ginger app. At the outset, we’ll provide 80+ interactive activity cards to help members manage stress and anxiety - the two highest-ranking issues derived from nearly two million chat conversations between our coaches and members. Each piece of interactive content takes just minutes to complete and will support members as they practice and learn new techniques like breathing exercises, mindful eating and creating a mental vacation. And in 2020, we’ll continue to expand into new topics. 

By bringing together our coaching with interactive, clinically-validated content, we're building an entirely new way to get support, designed to help people wherever and whenever they need it. As we continue to enhance the Ginger care experience, we hope to bring awareness of the fact that support isn’t just for those who know they need it - it’s for all of us.