Keeping pace: Innovating the mental-health care patient journey

Mental illness is one of the most prevalent health conditions in the US; around 38% of US adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression between 2020 and 2021, up from 11% in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet, unlike many other chronic conditions, mental-health care has not seen a breakthrough moment and remains underfunded and under-resourced. There has arguably never been a more urgent need to rethink innovation in the mental-health care journey.

Crises typically spur periods of innovation, and covid-19 was no exception. Under the constraints imposed by the pandemic, primary caregivers connected with patients over the phone, therapy sessions moved online and pre-existing digital vehicles such as text services, teletherapy and wearable devices came to greater prominence. The expansion of care pathways spurred by the pandemic has gone some way to facilitate access to different methods of support and has given people more choice over their individual patient journeys. It has also demonstrated what progress is possible in the mental-health space.

But innovations to date have targeted specific elements of the care journey, rather than fundamentally and holistically altering its entire trajectory, from the first point of access to post-treatment rehabilitation. Furthermore, they have largely coalesced around the digital space, where financing is in greater abundance and developments have a quicker path to market. Providing tailored and individualised care for every patient will require innovation across the spectrum of treatment and at every point of the care journey.

Keeping pace: Innovating the mental-health care patient journey will bring together patient advocacy representatives, mental-health practitioners and business leaders to examine the steps needed to foster innovation at every stage of the mental-health care journey. Programmed by Economist Impact and sponsored by Janssen Neuroscience, the questions addressed will include: 

• What are the long-standing barriers to innovation in the mental-health care journey?
• To what extent can the success of mental-health treatment be effectively measured? Could the development of clear metrics help foster innovation? 
• What will it take to unlock innovation across the spectrum of mental-health treatment? How can financing gaps be closed? 
• How can a comprehensive understanding of what patients need from the mental-health care journey be facilitated? 
• What needs to happen to ensure adequate and individualised care journeys for each and every patient?
• How has the pandemic changed the expectations and priorities of patients and health-care practitioners?