Calm Announces Mental Health Clinic Offering – Reuters

meditation app Calm has revealed a new mental health product that will be offered by traditional healthcare industry players such as self-insured providers, payers and employers.

The company said the offering, dubbed Calm Health, will include condition-specific programs that are “designed to bridge the gap between mental and physical health care.” Calm Health will also include communication tools with providers and caregivers as well as medication tracking.

Mental health programs will begin with support for patients with anxiety or depression, as well as programs for users as they prepare for therapy or use between sessions. Calm said he will eventually add mental health programs to support people with physical conditions such as hypertension, obesity, heart disease and cancer.

“Mental health has moved to the forefront of our nation’s health concerns,” Calm CEO David Ko said in a statement. “From the ravages of the pandemic to financial uncertainty and workplace anxieties, people have turned to Calm over the past decade to manage their mental health. As we move into health care, our goal is to reach even more people with clinical mental health tools and de-stigmatize the importance of regular mental health care.”

THE GREAT TREND

The new offer was first teased when Calm announced the acquisition of Ripple Health Group, a health technology company that makes apps for care coordination and condition management, earlier this year.

Ko, previously CEO of Ripple, joined Calm as co-CEO alongside Michael Acton Smith. Smith moved into a role of Executive Co-Chair this summerand Ko remained as sole general manager.

But Calm suffered financially badly in August, dismiss around 20% of its workforce. According to a first memo reported by the Wall Street Journal, Ko wrote that the company was “not immune to the impacts of the current economic environment.” A number of other digital health and health technology companies have laid off workers in recent months.

Mental health continues to be a popular area for digital health funding, even though investors are pouring less money into the space compared to last year. Calm last announced a $75 million Series C round at the end of 2020, which brought its valuation to $2 billion.

A big competitor to Calm is Headspace Health, the result of a 2021 merger between meditation and mindfulness-focused Headspace and digital mental health company Ginger. Headspace Health also made acquisitions this year. He recently purchased Sayana, maker of AI-enabled mental health and sleep tracking apps, and the Shine app, a mental wellness platform focused on culturally competent and inclusive offerings.