Yesterday, RockHealth.org CEO Katie Drasser led an insightful discussion at Aspen Ideas: Health. The panel "Making an Impact: Investing in Youth Mental Health Innovations" highlighted the urgent need for innovative, inclusive, and affordable youth mental health solutions. With nearly half of U.S. adolescents having experienced a mental health disorder, there’s huge opportunity for digital health innovation to play a role in improving youth mental health. Themes that emerged from the conversation: - Payers and investors are seeking help in navigating the vast digital youth mental health space. “It takes players and actors and really passionate people across all the sectors to create companies that are viable and meet the needs of young people, particularly those who are most often marginalized,” said Margaret Laws, President and CEO of Hopelab. - Supporting youth agency is key to earning trust. “As opposed to us moving to what we expect of the user,” said Ashley Edwards, CEO of MindRight Health, “we move to what the user expects of us.” - Partnerships are key to building sustainable youth mental health companies. Working with schools represents an exciting opportunity area for Solome Tibebu, Founder and CEO of Behavioral Health Tech. “Reaching and engaging youth is tough, “ she said, “Where else are they so many hours of the day?” Thank you to Margaret Laws (Hopelab), Solome Tibebu (Behavioral Health Tech), and Ashley Edwards (MindRight Health) for sharing their expertise. RockHealth.org—together with Pivotal Ventures, Fiore Ventures, Hopelab, and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation—will continue to explore how and where best to support youth mental health innovation. Dive into more insights from our conversation here: https://lnkd.in/ggpMXURG #DigitalHealth #YouthMentalHealth #AspenIdeasHealth #RockHealth
Such an inspiring and crucial discussion! It's heartening to see Rock Health leading the charge alongside esteemed partners like Hopelab and others, driving meaningful change for young people's mental well-being. Looking forward to seeing continued progress and impact in this important area!
Youth mental health has been underinvested in for years despite a growing burden of ill health and new challenges for young online generations. Thanks to you all for drawing attention to this topic and the exciting work you are doing in this space. 👏
Looks epic Katie Drasser Margaret Laws Solome Tibebu - thanks for sharing the themes and key takeaways! And mostly thanks for your pivotal work driving innovation and improvement in this space.
Thank you to Rock Health and Katie Drasser for the vision behind the panel and to my amazing co-panelists Solome Tibebu and Ashley Edwards for such an important and engaging conversation!