Jan 21, 2020
Chantel Garrett, Founder and Executive Director of Strong365 joins me for a conversation about psychosis,
schizophrenia, and how we can help people when they first start to
struggle.
One of the biggest problems we face
in helping people who struggle from mental illness is reducing the
“pathway to care” from the first symptoms until
treatment. The
average duration from symptom to treatment in the U.S. is 15 months
when the World Health Organization says it should be under 3
weeks.
Strong365, is a non-profit, and a
subsidiary of OneMind. Chantel and her team are on a
mission to connect people who need help, and the loved ones of
those people, through online education,
24/7 peer support, and connection to
specialized care centers across the U.S. in
order to reduce the time to care for those who need it.
Chantel has a degree in applied
economics from UC SF and lives in SF with her husband, 2 daughters,
1 dog and 5 chickens!
You can connect with Chantel
here: Strong 365 Website,
Chantel’s Twitter, Chantel’s LinkedIn
HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS
WE TALKED ABOUT:
- What is
Strong365? Strong365 was created
in 2014 to shorten the pathway to care for young people facing
their first episode of psychosis. They use digital channels to
connect with teens and young adults about what psychosis is,
provide educational information and humanize their stories to
reduce stigma.
They also provide a directory of care centers around the US of
which there are about 300 today (when in 2014 there were only
50). The federal
government has helped support that growth.
- Why did
she create Strong365? The idea came from a personal
experience. Her
brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 20, and he is
now 40 years old. It has been a long road, and he’s doing well, but
it took about 15 of those 20 years to find quality and effective
care. There is a
huge gap, particularly for young people, that are experiencing
mental health issues outside the realm of what most people usually
talk about.
While on sabbatical in 2014, Chantel
researched this topic of how to find care for
psychosis. She
realized the lack of options for help and wanted to create
something. So, she
started Strong365 to use her marketing background to promote a new
model of care.
This care is called “Coordinated Specialty Care.” The National
Institute of Mental Health (NIH) did a study on this model
leveraging more than 20 sites. The outcome of this study is
that young people do so much better if they get care early in their
mental health journey than waiting until some sort of disruptive
crisis sends them to the ER or inpatient care.
- The average time that
passes between the first episode of psychosis and getting care is
about 1 year and 3 month today in the United
States.
The World Health Organization has set a goal for that to be 3 weeks
globally. ‘The
time to care’ is the biggest lever in the long-term health outcomes
of young people with early psychotic disorders like
schizophrenia.
- How do people find
you?
People typically don’t come in for help on behalf of
themselves.
Typically, it’s a parent or some adult that helps a young person
come to care. The
number one referrer of people to care are inpatient units in the
U.S. We consider
this failing because most people are coming for help
after
a very traumatic event that leads them to the ER
and or inpatient treatment.
- How can we reduce the time
to care gap? Strong365 is piloting
a project in NY state to test their approach. They have partnered
with 23 clinics (all are coordinated specialty care clinics that
treat young adults with psychosis). They are trying to figure out
“what role digital media can play in meeting a young person
directly where they are at the right time, with the right
information and support.” This pilot program is funded
by the NIH and is a 3-year grant.
- How soon
can we solve this problem? We talked about how solutions
in this space move at a snail’s pace. While Chantel has a very
entrepreneurial spirit and wants to see solutions in market ASAP,
she must work around funding concerns, clinical concerns, finding
the right partners, and building a team to execute once all those
hurdles have been overcome.
Today, the care system for young
people experiencing psychosis is a very manual, fragmented
system. Usually,
someone comes into an ER, and the ER looks them up in an EHR
(database) to see what specialty provider to call. It’s a manual, slow, and
impersonal process that is not working for young people.
- Chantel and
Strong365 have
partnered with several organizations. As mentioned above, the NIH
has funded their latest work, but they also work closely with
Mental Health America (MHA), which has a
mental health screening tool on their website that screens for
psychosis. However, MHA has admitted to Strong365 that they
struggle helping someone after the screen results are
presented. A lot
of the times, people just disappear from MHA once the screen is
completed. This is
the problem that needs to be solved.
- Funding for Strong365 is
primarily provided by family foundations. Some money is also provided
by NIH research grants as mentioned above in the specific use case
we discussed on the podcast. We talked a bit about her
fund-raising challenges and how hard it was to get funding in the
first few years as a “startup” non-profit.
- Personally, Chantel spends
her time teaching yoga and mindfulness in underprivileged
neighborhoods to people who may not normally have access
to yoga studios and mindfulness apps. She explains that mindfulness
is something she discovered by the function of needing to take care
of herself and now she looks to share that experience and the
positive benefits of mindfulness with others.
Connect with the Stigma
Podcast in the following ways: Website,
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Connect with host Stephen
Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal
Website, Twitter,
LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture
Fund)