How Appa Health is addressing the teen mental health crisis
At Appa Health, our mission is to improve mental health for teens through meaningful relationships. We match teens with relatable mentors and provide mental health content designed for Gen-Z.
We were accepted into UC Berkeley’s SkyDeck Accelerator Program and recently raised an oversubscribed $1.1M pre-seed round led by Life Science Angels and Progression Fund.
Addressing a Public Health Crisis
Teen suicide rates have increased 60% in the past decade and 44% of high school students report feeling persistently sad or hopeless in the past year.
There are simply not enough behavioral health professionals to meet demand. Teens and families are left stranded as a result.
Appa co-founder and CEO, Robert Miller, experienced the problem first-hand when his oldest son struggled with anxiety and depression. “We spent hours on the phone just to end up on waitlists for months. It was heart-wrenching to feel like we had no options to support our son.”
At the time, Robert was VP of sales at Big Health, one of the first companies to create digital therapeutics for mental health. “It was especially frustrating because even though I was working for an innovative mental health company, I still couldn’t find support that was actually designed with teens in mind.”
Supporting Teens Through Meaningful Relationships
The cause of the current mental health crisis is complex, but one thing is strikingly clear–loneliness is a huge risk factor for increased mental health concerns. And teens today are lonelier than ever.
Appa fosters meaningful relationships by pairing teens with relatable young adult mentors that they can connect with through video sessions and text chat.
“Chances are, if you are a teen struggling with something right now, one of our mentors has dealt with that exact same thing,” said Sean Woodruff, co-founder and VP of Customer Experience.
Encouraging Outcomes
After Appa, 9 out of 10 teens felt less anxious or depressed and 95% of teens felt more confident to handle life’s challenges.
“The outcomes were even better than we’d hoped. This data makes me confident that we can make an impact at scale with this model of care,” said Dr. Katrina Roundfield, co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer.
The Appa team believes that a huge part of our success so far stems from the deep bonds mentors have made with their teens.
Appa teens agree. “My mentor always listened and remembered little details, which left me with such a good feeling inside,” remarked one Appa teen, who chose to remain anonymous. “I can just feel her care through her texts and video calls”
Mental Health Content Designed for Gen-Z
In addition to mentors, Appa provides a 12-week evidence-based curriculum of mental health content.
Based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and developed with psychologists from Yale and Harvard, Appa’s curriculum teaches proven strategies to improve emotional well-being.
Our experts know how to make content compelling to teens. One Appa creator, Dr. Melissa Shepard, is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. She also has more than 1.5 million followers on TikTok, where she works to de-stigmatize mental health struggles.
Building Partnerships with Schools
Now that we’ve successfully launched our program, Appa is expanding partnerships with high schools across the country to broaden access to mental health support.
We are currently working closely with the counseling departments at St. Mary’s College High School and Bishop O’Dowd High School.
If you know of any high schools who could benefit from additional mental health support, please reach out to Sean at sean@appahealth.com.
