The 2020-2021 National Survey of Children’s Health reported that over 50% of caregivers perceived obtaining mental health services for their children to be difficult or even impossible.
The journey to diagnosis and treatment is often confusing, frustrating, and extremely time-consuming. For a family on Medicaid, supporting a child who requires mental health care can be even more challenging. Parents who use Medicaid may experience limited provider ability and long wait times for appointments. Further, Medicaid has limits on the types of services it covers and changes state-by-state, making coverage difficult to understand. Language barriers and lack of transportation can also make it difficult to provide children on Medicaid with the services they need.
Mightier opens the front door to mental health care for families on Medicaid looking to get their child the care they need and deserve. Our goal is to provide a mental health service that is high-quality, accessible, and easy-to-use.
Check out our guide below to learn about all that Mightier has to offer for families with Medicaid coverage.
- Clinical evaluation
Receiving a diagnosis is often the first step to helping a child with mental or behavioral health needs. However, this step can be one of the most difficult, particularly for families on Medicaid. A shortage of mental health specialists and long wait times for assessments can make the process of getting a diagnosis take months or even years long.
Mightier provides families with a clinical evaluation they can complete from the comfort of their home at a time that is convenient for them. Once a child receives their assessment results, they can immediately begin care, mental health programming, and family resources tailored to their needs.
- Immediate and personalized mental health programming
Once a child receives a mental health diagnosis, it’s still a long road ahead filled with more appointments and therapy sessions. Families receiving services often continue to deal with long wait times and may face further barriers such as lack of transportation or explanation of care in their native language. Furthermore, traditional therapeutic methods, such as talk therapy, often are not engaging for children.
With Mightier, kids can start working towards their regulation goals immediately and consistently. Mightier’s mental health programming is geared specifically towards their diagnosis, namely ADHD, Autism, and ODD, or behaviors, such as anger. Mightier works by having the child wear a heart sensor while playing a digital game. During the game, they learn to manage big emotions and practice coping skills, and parents can track progress along the way.
- 1:1 Clinical Support
As we’ve noted, there can be several barriers that stand in the way of getting families on Medicaid the clinical services they need for their child.
Through Mightier, parents can connect 1:1 with a licensed clinician to receive additional program support. Our clinicians can monitor a child’s progress and provide programmatic support to families to help them reach their goals.
- Holistic, accessible care and support that really works
For families on Medicaid, getting access to mental health support can be extremely difficult, and even when received, services can feel one-size-fits-all. Mightier addresses these barriers by providing mental health programming that:
- is suited to individual needs
- engaging and fun
- easy to understand and implement
- includes the whole family
- can be done from home or on-the-go
- works with any schedule
- and is available in eight languages.
Mightier also provides ample caregiver support, including trainings, webinars, and access to a community of parents on a similar journey. Through the Mightier app, caregivers can conveniently access their child’s progress as well as guidance tailored toward their child’s diagnosis or behaviors. Mightier also includes online and offline resources for families, including games and activities that will help their child learn regulation skills while having fun.
- Healthy, happy families = Healthy, happy workers
Supporting a child’s mental health needs takes a huge toll on parents’ well-being, which in turn affects their careers. In a Mightier study, 69% of parents reported that their child’s behavioral or mental health has negatively impacted their career. Notably, 60% stated that the quality of their work has been impacted by their child’s mental or behavioral health, and this group reported missing a combined 128 days of work within the past month to support their child’s mental health.
After using Mightier, 83% of parents reported that their child’s emotional regulation improved. The study also indicated a significant increase in elements of parents’ own well-being, including physical health, mental health, happiness, life satisfaction, and relationships. At the end of the 12 weeks, 20% fewer caregivers reported a negative impact on work quality, and after the 12 weeks, the combined number of missed days dropped to 78. Clearly, when families have access to effective and affordable care for their children, their well-being improves and workplace performance with it.
Interested in learning more about Mightier as a mental health benefit for your Medicaid families? Let’s chat: https://www.mightier.com/health-plans/get-in-touch/
