Supportiv CEO Helena Plater-Zyberk spoke on a panel at the 2024 Behavioral Health Tech Conference, along with industry leaders Debra Katz (Optum), Manuel Arisso (Carelon Behavioral Health), James Gilson (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona), and panel moderator Alexa Mikhail (Fortune).

The panel discussion, entitled “Teens & Adults & Seniors, Oh My! Peer Support For All,” covered firsthand perspectives on offering digital peer support as a covered healthcare benefit – from the basis of peer support’s efficacy and appeal in various populations, to its digital implementation, to results of existing programs.

What are the details you might’ve missed?

People are beginning to utilize therapy services more enthusiastically; however, payors are left with three problems. One is that there are too few providers to meet demand, another is that there are still high costs associated with clinical services, and lastly, clinical services still don’t appeal across the board. Digital peer support can solve these problems as a scalable, low-cost, low-barrier, low-stigma proxy to therapy.

Manuel Arisso contended that while many services offered by EAPs help get around access barriers like out of pocket costs, the barriers of stigma and privacy concern generally remain – but anonymous services like that provided by Supportiv may circumvent stigma and privacy concerns.

When you haven’t shared your identity with a service provider, you can trust that what you say cannot be used against you. When the “provider” is a regular person like you, and the trained moderator takes a backseat role, you feel inherently that you aren’t being judged. In this model, the stigma associated with seeking care is eliminated.

This reduction in stigma may prove especially important for audiences on both ends of the age spectrum – seniors and teens. For teens, insurers like Optum have carried out ethnographic research on care-seeking journeys, and speed bumps along the way. The results point in the direction of a model like Supportiv’s. And in fact, this model has proven to be highly effective in action, as recounted by Debra Katz. Why?

One key may be that at Supportiv, teens can anonymously seek help and hear back from a real human in the moment – without judgment, with people in their age group, but with the protection of live-moderation. This synchronous format with live-moderation differentiates an effective online peer support model from the free-for-all static message boards we’ve all accessed across the internet.

This format benefits other age groups, too. Who can’t benefit from a timely sense of connection that’s safeguarded in realtime? James Gilson pointed out that this model may even play a positive role for those who already engage with more traditional peer support. When their specialist or caseworker is unavailable, knowing there’s still somewhere to turn – and hear back immediately – can be invaluable.

Overall, the main takeaway from this panel is that synchronous, anonymous digital peer support is a practical and appealing modality. This model benefits care-seekers across the age spectrum, across demographic lines – and also benefits payors. Win, win.

For those interested in more info on this win-win solution with proven results in the wild, drop us a line at info@supportiv.com.