Mantra Health and Didi Hirsch to Bring Quality Virtual Counseling and Crisis Care to Struggling College Students

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Feb. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the preeminent digital mental health clinic for young adults and the nation's premier Suicide Prevention Center announced an exclusive partnership to help U.S. colleges and universities. Together, Mantra Health and Didi Hirsch will provide best-in-class virtual mental health services and 24/7 on-demand support for students who need immediate mental health, substance use, or suicide crisis care.

As the U.S. grapples with tragic youth suicides highlighted by recent celebrity deaths, colleges across the country scramble to keep up with student demand for mental health care amidst surging anxiety, depression, and PTSD. One in four college-age young people has contemplated suicide and nearly half of this population is showing symptoms of anxiety or depression during the pandemic, per the CDC-US Census Bureau. Unfortunately, this comes against the backdrop of a national health workforce shortage, with one in three Americans living in areas lacking mental health professionals, and campuses are no exception. Most campus counseling centers are under-resourced and understaffed, creating long wait times for students to get appointments and damaging youth trust that someone will be there when they need it most.

Mantra Health helps campuses expand access to mental healthcare through telehealth. On-campus counseling centers are able to refer students to Mantra's large, diverse provider group while remaining involved in students' care using the Mantra Collaboration Portal. Students are easily matched with providers of similar backgrounds and identities. They have access to convenient appointment times and the ability to message their provider in-between visits. Mantra is currently accessible to nearly 500,000 students across 52 campuses, including Penn State, MIT, and Miami Dade College.

"Mantra is thrilled to join forces with Didi Hirsch to offer our partner schools the most clinically-informed program that includes teletherapy, telepsychiatry, and now nationally renowned suicide prevention care and training," said Ed Gaussen, co-founder and CEO of Mantra Health. "It is in Mantra's DNA to practice evidence-based care and we continue to push the boundaries to provide a better experience for students. Didi Hirsch shares our values. This partnership is an exciting step towards solving the mental health crisis happening in the young adult population."

Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services has been a recognized leader in whole-person mental health and crisis care for 80 years. Experts at its Suicide Prevention Center offer the nation's most comprehensive array of suicide-specialized services, including multiple 24/7 crisis hotlines in English and Spanish, 988 Crisis Chat & Texting, and Teen Line. Didi Hirsch pioneered suicide hotlines and support groups for survivors of attempts and loss that are gold standards taught throughout the U.S. today. The organization leads 988 planning and implementation across California on behalf of the State, and recently launched a ground-breaking 911 to 988 diversion program with the LAPD, disproportionately providing real-time crisis care to high-risk Black and Latinx young men, while avoiding unnecessary encounters with law enforcement.

"We're excited to expand our partnership with Mantra Health, offering 24/7 crisis care and suicide prevention training to students and faculty needing an immediate, skilled response," said Didi Hirsch's CEO Jonathan Goldfinger, MD, MPH, FAAP. "Watching suicide attempts and losses increase in young people is breaking all of our hearts, but educators experience much of the trauma without resolution. Now they'll be able to offer something wonderfully healing for students and faculty: top-quality, always-available support. Together we can save so many lives."

To learn more about the partnership between Mantra Health and Didi Hirsch, visit MantraHealth.com.

About Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services
Founded on principles of health equity and innovation, Didi Hirsch has been providing whole-person mental health and crisis care to children, adults and families since 1942. In additon to the above, its first-in-the-nation Suicide Prevention Center trains students, teachers, mental health professionals, first responders, law enforcement, and others throughout the U.S. to save lives. Didi Hirsch professionals compassionately care for almost 160,000 children and adults annually through outpatient, residential, and crisis services at 10 locations and 120 schools in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Learn more at DidiHirsch.org.

About Mantra Health
Mantra Health is a digital mental health clinic on a mission to improve access to evidence-based mental healthcare for young adults. Through augmenting high-quality clinical services with software and design, we're on a mission to improve the mental health of over 20 million university and college students through partnerships with higher education institutions and health insurance plans. Learn more about Mantra Health at MantraHealth.com.

Media Contact:
Laurel Getz
203-767-5963
[email protected]

SOURCE Mantra Health