Mental health benefits provider Lyra Health is rolling out two new treatment services for users struggling with issues such as alcohol use disorder (AUD), suicidality and other complex mental health diagnoses. The Burlingame, California-based company made the announcement Thursday.
One of the offerings is Lyra Reset, which will enable users to address AUD issues through a variety of treatment modalities. Those modalities include virtual therapy, group sessions, ongoing symptom assessments, peer recovery support specialists, digital lessons teaching coping skills and medication to combat cravings for alcohol.
Lyra Reset is available for families as well and is delivered through its Blended Care platform, which combines therapist-guided sessions with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT is widely regarded as a gold standard of psychotherapy treatment.
Lyra’s other offering will also come through the Blended Care platform.
Lyra’s Blended Care Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a specialized program aimed at reducing suicidal ideation and behavior among users. Through the Blended Care platform, Lyra DBT combines one-on-one virtual therapy sessions with skill-building lessons prescribed by therapists.
Weekly group skills training and 24/7 crisis support are available to users through Lyra DBT. DBT is another highly regarded treatment for individuals with moderate to high suicidal ideation.
Both Lyra Reset and Lyra DBT will be available at the beginning of next year. The services are being rolled out amid a rise in AUD and worsening behavioral health conditions since the onset of the pandemic. The new services come roughly three months after the company announced plans to make its preventive care and mental health coaching offerings available worldwide.
More people were found to have consumed alcohol in April 2020 after a number of stay-at-home social measures were enacted, according to the Journal of Addiction Medicine. The measures were subsequently enforced shortly after the first cases of COVID-19 started spreading widely throughout the country.
It is estimated that 15 million Americans suffer from AUD, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Additionally, four out of 10 adults have reported anxiety or depressive disorder, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Prior to the pandemic, one out of 10 adults had reported such worsening behavioral conditions.
“Individuals facing serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders have less access to care and resources than those with mild mental health issues,” Connie Chen, the chief operating officer of Lyra Health, said in a press release announcing the offerings. “Our newest AUD and other complex care offerings build on our existing specialty solutions to close a critical gap in mental health care, supporting a population that has historically been underserved due to the complexity and cost of care required to drive meaningful improvement. Lyra is proud to offer effective care options to leading employers dedicated to supporting their people and their families, regardless of where they are on the mental health spectrum.”
Founded in 2015, Lyra Health partners with workplaces to link employees and families to behavioral health services through a process known as intelligent matching technology.
The process connects users to therapists, coaches or physicians specializing in mental health or addiction treatment care, with workplaces such as eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Uber (NYSE: UBER) and Zoom (Nasdaq: ZM) among the company’s clients.
The company raised $200 million in a May funding round that brought its total amount raised to date to $675.1 million, according to fundraising tracking site Crunchbase. The company’s valuation is reportedly nearly $4.6 billion, making Lyra Health one of the few pure play behavioral health companies to have reached unicorn status by crossing the billion-dollar threshold.