Story by Autism Business News freelance reporter Sam Greszes
Jonathan Wright’s mother spent her life as an adolescent psychiatrist, helping to improve outcomes for young children with severe mental illnesses.
In 2015, Wright took inspiration from his mother’s life’s work to found Opya, an organization based in California that seeks to provide better autism therapy options for young children by using a multidisciplinary and tech-forward approach to improve clinical outcomes.
Opya CEO Alden Romney often thinks back to his company’s backstory, and he takes that mission very seriously.
“Opya was founded in 2015 to address the significant need for services for children diagnosed with autism,” Romney told Autism Business News. “Over the years, we’ve expanded from one location to multiple geographies across California.”
To honor the organization’s founding principle, Opya now offers services in Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California and the Central Valley, in addition to San Mateo, where Opya is headquartered.
Cost is a major concern for families seeking autism care, and it can often prevent children from getting the services and treatment they need. Paying out of pocket for autism care is expensive, and for many families, something they simply cannot afford.
For Romney, ensuring equitable access to Opya’s services is critical, he told ABN.
“[We have] a variety of in-network contracts with both Medicaid and commercial payers in California so we can provide services to a wide range of families across the state,” he said.
Because the quality of outcomes for small children diagnosed with autism increases when care begins before the age of 6, Opya focuses on care for children from 18 months old to 6 years of age, helping prepare these children for entering elementary school and other public settings.
The “Op” in “Opya” stands for “Optimism,” a quality that permeates Opya’s approach to autism care, along with its three guiding principles of early intervention, in-home care and connectivity.
Opya’s interdisciplinary care takes many forms, from research-backed feeding therapies for children with taste or texture sensitivities, occupational therapy to help with motor skills, and speech therapy to aid children in building language, social and Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) skills they’ll need in public settings like elementary schools.
Because communication is paramount in ensuring better outcomes, Opya’s connected care model is supported by technology that allows instant, easy, and streamlined communications among clinicians, families, clients, and staff.
“[We] employ BCBAs, RBTs, speech therapists, and occupational therapists,” Romney said. “All of our behavior therapists become RBTs, which we believe is important for a consistent level of clinical quality.”
This emphasis on quality control not only pays dividends for Opya in terms of clinical outcomes, but operational ones as well. Romney remarked that “Opya earned a 3-year accreditation with the BHCOE in 2022, the highest level possible, on our first accreditation attempt.”
As the company continues to grow to keep pace with an increasing need for early autism care, Romney shared that Opya hopes to be able to service more families “both organically and through small acquisitions with other providers who match up with our passion for high clinical quality.”
That scaling may have already started, given Opya’s recent acquisition of the Center for Autism Spectrum Therapy.
“I’m really excited about having the Center for Autism Therapy join Opya in our effort to help as many children as possible grow their fullest potential,” Romney said. “The team there is fantastic, and it’s a great fit.”
Operationally, the acquisition will allow Opya to offer expanded center-based autism care in addition to their in-home and community treatment options, increasing both the level of care Opya is able to provide, as well as families’ access to that care.
“Opya is still a relatively small organization,” Romney said, “but we have enough scale to be able to support the day-to-day needs of our team in the community and clinic. We’re looking to continue to help more kids, both organically and through small acquisitions with other providers who match up with our passion for high clinical quality and a great overall experience.”
Currently, Opya provides care to hundreds of families across the state of California.
Sam Greszes is a freelance reporter for Autism Business News. His work has been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, Thrillist, Polygon and others. He is currently based in Chicago, Illinois.
