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How can a university-based center leverage the expertise of its faculty to drive innovation in mental health, disability care, and digital health?
This is a real and present question for Thrive Center, and we are testing one response this month with the launch of our Innovation Hub. Led by Jason Lehmbeck, a new member of Thrive and an experienced tech entrepreneur and disability rights advocate, the Innovation Hub brings together cohorts of promising organizations (both nonprofit and for-profit) in the mental health, disability care, and digital health realms into a three-month fellowship program.
What is the goal of this undertaking for Thrive? We hope to deploy the diverse expertise (research, clinical, and lived experience) of our teams to support innovations that will meaningfully and quickly improve every aspect of care and support for individuals and families living with disabilities and mental health needs. We know too well from our work in communities across the country that barriers to timely and high-quality care and support remain frustrating and persistent.
We need to support new solutions at every level of care and support, including clinical innovation and workforce expansion, new models of care, and new models of payment, in order to meet the pressing needs of the people we serve.
— Matt Biel
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Introducing The First Cohort of Innovation Hub @Thrive | |
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During the Innovation Hub fellowship, the cohort of organizations will benefit from consultation with Thrive Center researchers, as well as coaching and mentorship from experienced leaders. The fellows will focus on how the science of engagement can be applied to drive uptake of their innovative solutions, and will be supported in using data-driven decision-making to validate their approaches.
The Innovation Hub @Thrive will host two fellowship cohorts per year, and each cohort will culminate in a "Science Fair" in which the participating organizations will share their innovations and plans for scale and impact.
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Flourish Labs
Kim Newell Green, Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Flourish Labs
Obi Felten, Founder & CEO, Flourish Labs
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“Flourish Labs is a healthcare company on a mission to scale peer support with telehealth and AI to address the youth mental health crisis. We provide mental health peer support for teenagers and young adults at Peers.net, our telehealth service that is co-created with youth, for youth. We expand the mental health workforce with our accredited peer support specialist training.
By growing a network of diverse providers and providing accessible, affordable, and scalable mental health support to youth, we can significantly improve mental health outcomes, particularly for underserved communities such as LGBTQ+, BIPOC, low-income and rural youth. Peer supporters on Peers.net have lived experience of a wide variety of conditions, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, OCD, bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, neurodiversity, trauma, and more. Over half identify as LGBTQ+ and/or BIPOC. As a telehealth solution, Peers.net reaches youth wherever they are.”
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“Psyche Care is a mental health platform empowering caregivers of emotionally complex youth to build relational wellness and manage their child’s symptoms at home. We support caregivers in developing personalized caregiver-mediated protocols, informed by evidence-based methods such as DBT and CBT, for managing and preventing mental health crises with confidence.
This is a unique yet essential approach to supporting the long-term recovery and wellness of the entire family. Our initial target market is caregivers of youth ages 8-17 with severe emotional complexities, including symptoms such as self-harming and recurring suicidality, but we plan to expand our services to include other families of fragile children, such as foster families and families of children with medical complexities.”
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Hand in Hand Parenting
Maya Coleman, Executive Director, Hand in Hand Parenting
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“Hand in Hand Parenting supports all the adults in children's lives to build the infrastructure of connection in all the places children grow through attuned and responsive caregiving tools.
Hand in Hand's mission is to meet adults’ and children’s core need for connection with unique caregiving tools and community support made easily accessible to parents and professionals worldwide. We do that through parent leadership and support groups, professional development workshops and classes for educators and mental health professionals, communities of practice, consultations, a mentored online community, a year-long Instructor training program, a research team, and an Instructor program that provides ongoing professional development for 250+ Instructors working in their communities worldwide.”
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“Clayful partners with schools to provide preventative, pre-clinical mental health coaching to students. With Clayful, students can connect to a human coach in 60 seconds and get real support, in real time — all through chat. …
Clayful has focused on building for and with youth. We help schools meet young people where they are at (on their devices) and reduce the barriers to accessing mental health (i.e. no need for an appointment). By providing pre-clinical support, we are helping young people before they reach a breaking point and helping them build skills so they never get there.”
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Happypillar
Samantha Gardner, CEO and Founder, Happypillar
Chloe Picot-Jacobs, Chief Clinical Officer, Happypillar
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“Happypillar is an award-winning app that transforms evidence-based child therapy techniques into engaging digital experiences that are available 24/7. With over 10,000 downloads and counting, our platform offers actionable strategies, guided activities, and progress tracking. In just minutes a day, parents can apply proven therapeutic tools with their children from the comfort of home. The app even adapts to families’ unique needs, offering personalized pathways for common challenges like anxiety, behavioral issues, and emotional regulation.
Happypillar is revolutionizing pediatric mental health solutions by eliminating the barriers that prevent families from accessing support. Evidence-based therapy modalities for children exist, but obstacles like cost, therapist availability, and time keep them out of reach for many. … Our groundbreaking app harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to bring evidence-based techniques from established child therapy modalities into the hands of parents.”
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Pediatrics Northwest
Rachel Lettieri, Director of Care Transformation, Pediatrics Northwest
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“Pediatrics Northwest is a regional, multi-specialty pediatric group dedicated to improving the health of children and families in our communities. We provide a dedicated primary care provider, as well as specialty care in allergies, asthma, pulmonology, and sleep medicine. Our Care Transformation division has been focused on supporting families from the start (Early Relational Health, Unmet Social Needs), co-creating with families (Family Partnership), and creating effective teams of care (Community Health Workers, Integrated Mental Health Therapists).
We have created a family partnership, external to the practice, in the community, consisting of families that have been invited via our Community Health Workers. This family partnership shares their experiences navigating the healthcare system and articulates what support they are looking for. We also introduce our Community Health Workers at every 1 month and 2 month visit as a member of the care team. Similarly to how one has a primary care provider, they also will have a community health worker that helps accompany them by addressing unmet social needs, models early relational health principles and practices, and reduces barriers to care.”
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Interested in connecting with the Innovation Hub fellows as a potential mentor or supporter? Let us know by filling out the form below. | |
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Questions, suggestions, or comments for the team that makes Thrive Dispatches? Want us to write about your research or work? Send us an email: Contact@ThriveCenter.Georgetown.edu.
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