Peer-based Mental Health Platform "Happy" Adds Strength Of SAS Analytics

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The breadth of mental health and substance abuse disorders in the US is staggering. Depression affects 18 million people, 40 million face anxiety disorders, and almost 21 million have at least one addiction. To better identify and help people facing mental health challenges, Happy – an innovative peer-based mental health platform – is collaborating with analytics leader SAS on a novel program to expand access to behavioral health services.

The Happy mental health platform, accessed through a member's health plan, provides 24/7 access to emotional support programs via a phone app and dedicated 1-800 number. Other services include needs assessments and screening for depression and anxiety; food and housing security; and related risk factors for education on smoking cessation, weight loss and substance use. The new collaboration allows Happy to harness the power of SAS® health analytics to more intelligently identify individuals in need of mental health support and target the most vulnerable populations for access to effective, low-cost care.

"Our current mental health infrastructure – predominated by high-cost, clinical, stigmatized, inconvenient and reactive interventions – is not designed or equipped to meet Americans' increased need for basic mental health support," said Jeremy Fischbach, founder and CEO of Happy. "In the absence of low-cost, destigmatized and proactive mental health options, the American population will become increasingly isolated, anxious, depressed and addicted. Those trends bode ominously for stakeholders ranging from health insurers to employers, the federal government to states and municipalities."

SAS brings a wide and deep footprint in health care analytics with expertise in advanced population health management to support Happy, which has national expertise in driving direct member mental health and well-being engagement. Together, they deliver a market first: a comprehensive, evidence-based behavioral health product offering. Specifically, the collaboration enables:

• Enhanced member behavioral health care access, screening and analytics support.
• Proactive identification of people in need of Happy's services through risk stratification.
• Analyzation of whole-person outcomes to broader populations.
• Optimized population health management with a focus on behavioral health integration for lower-level mental health needs.

"SAS' collaboration with Happy comes at a time when health care stakeholders are increasingly focused on bridging the gap between data and the delivery of health care services," said Josh Morgan, PsyD, National Director of Behavioral Health and Whole Person Care at SAS. "There are few health care services that will be as important over the coming years as 24/7 mental health support, and SAS is excited to do everything it can to further this objective."

The Happy platform, powered by a full analytics engine and dashboard, supports predictive modeling, risk stratification/identification (at individual and population level), screener validation models, member needs evaluation modeling, cost optimization, near-real-time monitoring, and resource modeling. Additional benefits include capabilities to bring all data types (e.g., structured, unstructured, image, real-time) together into a single view for analysis, creation of comprehensive member profiles to easily identify members across a variety of care environments, and specific population/sub-pop management programs and tools.

To learn more about the Happy platform, visit www.happythemovement.com/sas.

About Happy
Happy is a peer-based mental health and supportive culture company that is changing the national conversation about preventive mental health and sustainable emotional well-being. Happy was founded to directly address behavioral health at scale and to give people the genuine human connection and support they need to reach their full potential. Happy is working with large payers and providers and is a national partner of leading national health organizations including the American Nurses Association, Mental Health America, the National MS Society and the American Heart Association and will soon be launching Happy Music in Q4, 2021. Happy is based in New Orleans with a national Support Giver network team and offices in Indianapolis and San Diego.

About SAS
SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW^®.

SOURCE Happy