In healthcare, AI is starting to improve diagnostic accuracy, personalize treatments and support more efficient patient care delivery. Mental health care is a trickier proposition. Psychologists this month gave a presentation to federal regulators on the dangers of AI chatbots posing as therapists, citing several cases where teenagers have died.
A new crop of mental health tech startups are combining AI tools with real-time oversight from psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health care professionals to manage the risk of harmful and inappropriate responses.
This week, Stanford, Calif.-based Sonar Mental Health raised $2.4 million in pre-seed financing for Sonny, its AI-powered “well-being companion” that provides mental health support to adolescents via text messages. Sonny was built and is managed with oversight from a board of psychiatrists, counselors and researchers.
The chatbot is used by more than 4,500 students in nine US school districts to cope with stress during college applicants, grief and conflict. Sonar claims to help administrators improve early intervention for mental health crises and lower absenteeism in low-income and rural schools.
Lived experience
Nearly half of adolescents in the US have had a mental health disorder, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and bipolar disorders. “Now more than ever, teens deserve to feel heard and seen, and educators deserve a scalable solution for delivering mental health support,” said Sonar’s Drew Barvir.
Barvir lost his mother to suicide eight years ago, five years after he had lost a colleague to suicide. “I see it as my personal mission to prevent another family or friend from experiencing the tragedy of losing a loved one to mental illness,” he said. Sonar’s investors include Nina Capital, GSR Ventures, J4 Ventures and the Stanford Impact Founder Fellowships.
Healthy youth
Other youth mental health-focused startups that are using AI tools include San Francisco-based Little Otter, which this month raised $9.5 million to personalize whole-family mental healthcare plans. Carrie Walton Penner of Fiore Ventures called Little Otter’s ability to blend AI with human-centered care a “game-changer.”
Maryland-based Backpack Health, backed byCollab Capital, Hopelab, Rethink Education, GeniusBuild and other investors, offers an AI-based pediatric mental health teletherapy. BlackBird Health, based in Pittsburgh, uses AI to reduce trial and error in treating youth behavioral health issues.
Also this week, Psyched Services secured a $300,000 low-interest loan for personalized mental health services in California schools, via a partnership between Mission Driven Finance and Elevance Health Foundation. Psyched’s team of psychologists provide one-on-one counseling, group therapy and specialized mental health for adolescents and the adults support them.
