Rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts are rising among US teenagers.
A recent report from the Center for Disease Control found that nearly one in three girls have seriously considered suicide and a significant number, 13%, have actually attempted it.
Psychologists have various theories about what causes mental health crises in teenagers.
Some blame its increased use smartphones and social mediawhile others believe that isolation during the pandemic played an important role.
Although the main drivers of adolescent psychological difficulties are not well understood, the biggest challenge now is to find ways to solve the growing problem, given the nationwide shortage of mental health professionals.
Jake Sussman, who was one of the four co-founders of a Headway mental health network the size of a unicornbelieves his new startup can help address the deepening crisis by offering online group therapy for kids in grades five through 12.
After leaving Headway two years ago, Sussman decided to try something completely different. He became a fifth-grade English teacher at a charter school in Brooklyn. This experience not only gave him the opportunity to teach kids how to write essays, but it also gave him a front-row seat to why mental health care for children is currently disrupted.
Sussman’s school had a counselor, but despite that person’s best efforts, they often couldn’t arrange timely help for students, he said.
“[Counselors] they are not clinicians. They have a huge caseload,” Sussman said. “The best they can do is give families physical PDF files of clinics that all have long waiting lists.”
She shared the story of Jamelia, an orphan who fell into depression after her best friend dropped out of school. Since Jamelia was covered by Medicaid, she had to wait three months to see a therapist.
Sussman realized that one way to solve the shortage of mental health professionals was to offer help in a group setting.
“Group care has been around for a long time,” Sussman said. “They have been rigorously studied. And they work.”
While studies have found that group therapy is like effective as an individual treatmentthis type of treatment is not often offered by mental health professionals.
Although therapists in private practice can make more money than group sessions, group therapy is unpopular with behavioral health providers because it’s a huge administrative challenge, according to Sussman. “You’re not going to find 10 kids, coordinate 10 programs and verify 10 insurances. It’s too much work.”
Because of logistics, online group therapy can also be more effective than in-person therapy, according to Sussman.
“If you have two groups, and one is just 17-year-old girls who are anxious, and another is 17-year-old girls who are anxious and are Hispanic, and identify as LGBTQ, that second group, all things being equal, is going to be much, much more effective because it’s more specific,” Sussman said. “The second group would be almost impossible to complete personally. How do you find 10 people who match this criteria in a radius with the ability to convert the group’s location?’
Marble, that Sussman started late last year with another Headway co-founder, Dan Ross, claims it can solve the logistics of organizing group therapy and, at the same time, help many more students without sacrificing quality of care. On Friday, the startup is coming out of stealth and announcing that it has raised $5 million in seed funding from Khosla Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, IA Ventures, and participation from Daybreak Ventures and Lorimer Ventures.
Sussman said Marble’s main competitors are school-focused teletherapy startups Hazel, Daybreak and Wheel wheel, who work directly with school districts. “Schools have budgets available for student mental health, but those budgets are variable and quite small,” Sussman said, adding that schools can pay for up to six private therapy sessions, but that’s not enough time for the treatment of students.
Marble’s approach is different. The company works with school counselors who are empowered to make referrals, Sussman said.
Instead of billing school districts for Marble’s services, the company works with insurances, including Medicaid.
Sussman explained that Marble’s approach is financially feasible because Medicaid will pay at least $20 per child for a group session. “With 10 kids in a group, we can make $200 for that hour, which means we can pay the therapist a competitive rate and have enough money to really build the business,” Sussman said.
Marble tested this approach with one school in New York and plans to build a relationship with hundreds of counselors across New York State over the next school year. “Counselors see the magic of not having waiting lists,” Sussman said. “They realize it’s a lot better than what they’re using right now.”
While the company is launching its services in New York, it plans to expand to other states as well.
