Lightfully Behavioral Health, a hybrid mental health provider, has launched a new offering to support college students.
Lightfully U is intended to support the more than 60% of college students who have at least one mental health condition. The offering is a virtual intensive outpatient program (IOP) targeted at college students ages 18 through 25.
The number of college students participating in counseling or therapy has risen over the past several years. The average annual caseload for a typical full-time college counselor is about 120 students, with some centers averaging more than 300 students per counselor.
According to one survey, more than 40% of undergraduate students have considered dropping out, with most citing mental health as the reason. Experts have been sounding the alarm on the need for students to urgently get more mental health support.
“There’s a really big need here, where students aren’t getting access to the care that they need,” Andie Hollowell, Lightfully’s chief growth officer, told Fierce Healthcare. Students can experience wait times stretching up to eight weeks, she added, and some cases are not appropriate for a traditional outpatient setting.
The virtual IOP is for a range of higher-acuity mental health conditions. When counselors on college campuses encounter a student with a higher acuity need than they can treat, they can refer them to Lightfully. Students will typically be in the program three hours a day, three times a week, for about a month. It also offers a free online support group weekly to college-age students.
The program does not typically offer medication management, but works with students’ other providers like psychiatrists to coordinate care. Lightfully works with all commercial plans and in many cases is in-network for students, Hollowell said. The company is currently working on teaming up with California’s universities, and already works with the University of California (UC) system and about two dozen other schools.
The company has had a “really warm receptiveness” from payers because many providers are not focused on this population, Hollowell explained. “This is such an area of opportunity here to really help support a demographic that I think right now we’re sort of missing or forgetting about,” Hollowell said.
The program is as effective as treatment in-person, the company claims, with the advantage of convenience and privacy. Services offered include primary and family therapy, a psychiatrist, group sessions, team meetings, experiential activities and alumni support.
Lightfully said it is among the first and only mental health providers focused on primary mental healthcare. While many competitors treat co-occurring conditions, Hollowell argues, they don’t exclusively focus on a person’s primary mental health condition, particularly at higher acuity levels.
The company is built around process-based therapy, a framework that delivers personalized and holistic care. The women-founded, women-led startup was founded in 2021 after co-founder Jennifer Steiner’s daughter, who struggled to find mental health support in college, had to come home for a year to access proper care.
Lightfully has 15 facilities in California, with plans to open three more this year and also expand to other states.