In the Moment | SyncTALK
Story 29

Guy Barnard: The traditional solutions in mental health just haven't worked. I think what we found with Synchronous is we felt that there could be a better way, that if we focused on empathy, on human connection, and on supporting people in the moment where they needed it, then we really could provide a different level of support.

Dexter Shurney: The one thing about mental health these days is that there's a shortage of providers. What I like about Synchronous Health is that it bridges a lot of those gaps.

Janet Calhoun: This therapy model where you see your therapist and then you leave and you are on your own in between sessions. What Synchronous has really done is, with Karla, we're able to be with that person 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Dexter Shurney: What we do is we have our clinicians program Karla. They use a drag and drop technology.

Kati Lohr: I can program Karla to say, "When it's 10:00 a.m., before your big staff meeting, send a breathing exercise to decrease anxiety." And she's going to be able to support you so that when we work together, we get to work on the impact of what has happened. Not have to recount and retell everything that has happened.

Janet Calhoun: The other thing about Synchronous is we can maximize our specialists and scale them to support a lot of people because Karla is there as their extension and supporting people in between those visits.

Lisa Henderson: I think what makes Synchronous Health so unique is that we focus on what are the limitations of people being willing to trust a piece of technology to help them in their most vulnerable moments.

Kati Lohr: Karla is actually programmed by the individual provider so the language that Karla is going to say to you is going to be exactly the language that we talked about when we were in session. It's about that provider's ability to truly connect and have an empathic rapport with the person that they're working that's going to make that care successful.

Lisa Henderson: We can build a whole bunch of features and capabilities, but they're not going to be used if we haven't first earned the trust of our participants.

Dawn Zerneke: Metro Nashville Public Schools is a marquee client of ours, and we have seen lower turnover and over 80% improvement in quality of life. We've had similar success with Adventist Health. We're seeing a 35% reduction in the severity of depression and anxiety risk.

Dexter Shurney: I'm always looking for the right partnerships. I've been around healthcare for a long time, so there are a lot of things that are the bright, shiny thing that people chase after, but they actually don't work. This had, not only was it shiny and bright, but it also would work.

Guy Barnard: The number one predictor of outcome in mental health is empathy, so we scale empathy. We have a network of specialists. They provide mental health counseling services, and we pair that with advanced technology in the form of a bot to extend support to the moment when someone needs it most