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  • #26 Bricks, Mortar, and Mental Health: Are real world clinics about to make a come back?

#26 Bricks, Mortar, and Mental Health: Are real world clinics about to make a come back?

Hybrid models, flagship clinics and a potential pivot to more in-person clinics?

Author

Steve Duke
October 24, 2024

Hi friends,

I recently read a quote from Naomi Allen that got me thinking…

“We started to see data indicating that while many families love the convenience of virtual care for child and youth mental health services many families would prefer in-person or believe in-person to be superior for their child (especially for higher acuity needs).”

Naomi is the CEO of Brightline and the quote was part of her recent blog post outlining their shift in strategy. 

She followed up by saying that Brightline would be;

“moving back to hybrid care, and adding physical brick-and-mortar clinics in key markets”

What’s interesting about this is that it’s coming from the leader of a mental health tech-startup that has been fully committed to virtual care deliver for many years.

When everyone else seems to be shifting increasingly towards telehealth, Brightline are now going in a different direction.

They are pivoting away from virtual-only services, embracing hybrid care and creating real-world, physical clinics in communities. What is Naomi seeing that justifies this strategy?

It got me thinking…

What is the role of in-person locations in mental healthcare in 2024?

What benefits do they offer to patients, providers and businesses?

What approaches are different business taking towards in-person clinics?

And what interesting opportunities might real world spaces hold for organisations as they think about their long term strategy?

To get some interesting opinions, I also spoke with a few founders to learn how they are thinking about these questions.

Below, I share my own thoughts and analysis as well as the perspectives of these founders.

We’ll cover;

  • State of play: How the major players have approached their physical location strategy so far

  • Founder insights: How the founders of companies like Resilience Labs, Brightline and SelfSpace are thinking about the role of physical locations in their business.

  • The Big Opportunities: My thoughts on the opportunities physical locations hold for mental health businesses

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