Pediatric behavioral health provider Bend Health has launched a new virtual acute stabilization program in 25 states.

The multi-pronged virtual program is designed to be a step up from traditional outpatient care and a step down from inpatient programs. The new program was born out of a need for an intensive level of care for the youth population.

The team at Bend noticed that roughly 75% of the referrals that they were receiving involved young people with moderate to severe mental health needs. This included children and young people with significant depression, self-harm, suicidal ideation and aggression. 

“We found [challenges] with getting them into a more intensive program that was not inpatient,” Dr. Monika Roots, president and co-founder at Bend Health, told Behavioral Health Business. “We found that it didn’t exist for certain age groups, or [patients] would go and they would come back, and things would not be going well, or we would refer them out, and it would fall through the cracks. We wanted to make sure that we had a program for them, so we created our acute stabilization program.”

Madison, Wisconsin-based Bend Health offers virtual behavioral health services for young people up to age 25. The company has raised $32 million between seed and Series A funding.

The new service includes a virtual intensive outpatient program (IOP), which provides three-hour group therapy, three days a week. Bend splits the groups by age category and consists of an offering for children aged 8 to 12, one for teens aged 13 to 17, and one for young adults aged 18 to 25.

Roots noted that few intensive programs cover the youngest age group in particular. Bend has designed the program to cater to each age group’s needs.

For example, the program includes many interactive games and play therapy techniques for children 8 to 12 to help group members engage with each other. Meanwhile, the teen therapy group includes activities such as creating a Spotify playlist to set a mood for the day.

Roots noted that the social nature of groups can positively impact young people.

“I think one of the critical points to remember is that kids and young adults, especially those in school, are around groups all day. They’re in social situations. They have to interact,” Roots said. “Only having individual therapy to learn techniques to then apply for things like depression and anxiety, without that socialization group piece is less effective. So as we think about things like severe depression, where you need to practice those coping skills to come out of it, having that group interaction is probably the best thing that you can do for this age group.”

​​In addition to group therapy, patients enrolled in the program can access Bend’s psychiatrists, individual and family therapy, and medication management.

Referrals to the program come from three primary sources: residential and partial hospitalization programs looking for a step-down option for their patients, emergency departments and primary care providers. 

Roots noted that payers are also receptive to the new program as a way to fill gaps in care.

“We focused on offering our acute stabilization program at a prime time. So really looking at after school and later hours. I think that that has been extremely appealing to payers because many of these structured programs tend to be during the day, which is very difficult for a kid in school,” Roots said. “We have found that there has been an extremely receptive payer market to covering services like this. I think the other piece is that we focus on addressing an age group that is frequently not attended to.”