21 hours Ago By Eli Walsh
CARDIFF – Less than 10% of public schools strongly agree that they can effectively provide mental health services to all students in need, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Roughly 20% of students at public schools that provide mental health services utilized those resources, while 60% of public schools said that concerns expressed by public school staff about students showing signs of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues rose from 2023 to 2024. The NCES’ annual School Pulse Panel, which includes responses from several thousand public K-12 schools across 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.
S. territories of American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the U.S.
Virgin Islands, is but one dataset that supports mental health care coordination startup Care Solace’s mission to improve care access. “We have tremendous staff shortages, we have licensure shortages, we have provider shortages,” Care Solace CEO Chad Castruita said of the broader mental health care system. “We have a lack of clarity from insurance companies, and even counties, of utilization and specialization and ensuring that those are updated for the broader community they serve.
” After struggling with a mental health crisis that led to substance abuse and homelessness, Castruita founded Care Solace in 2017 as an aggregation platform to connect students and families with mental health care services, especially those with poor or no health insurance. While Care Solace doesn’t provide mental health care services itself, the company offers booking services for open appointments with information about wait times, availability, specialization, language preferences, location, telehealth availability and other filters. Major Investment to Fuel Expanding Access with AI More than 21 million people have accessed the company’s technology and services since then, with Care Solace becoming the OpenTable of mental health care, according to Castruita.
Care Solace is active in more than 900 school districts and communities across 36 states. “We’re the most prolific ..
. care coordination (and) navigation service for kids, families and residents of communities,” Castruita said. To support and expand on its mission to improve access to mental health resources, Care Solace announced in early March that it secured a $20 million strategic investment from the Portland, Oregon-based philanthropic organization Lemnis.
Castruita said the funding, the company’s first major investment after previously raising only around $3.5 million in total, will support Care Solace’s continued expansion into more school districts and communities in need while also building up the company’s tech platform to add artificial intelligence capabilities. The investment will also give Care Solace an operating and strategic innovation runway of at least three years.
“The goal is to become an AI-driven community-impact company across the U.S. and so the strategic investment is going to advance that cause and give us a war chest of resources to fulfill on that vision and fulfill on that mission,” he said.
The details of that AI integration are still in development as the company tests multiple potential integrations over the next year, according to Castruita, but Care Solace will always prioritize human connection. “The human touch is never going to go away as long as I’m doing this,” he said. “People want to speak to a live person, in their own language, that’s empathetic and understanding.
AI will only get better over time but the human element is so critical to our existence and a key differentiator.” Alternative to Broader Health Care System Beyond K-12 schools, an estimated 59.3 million adults in the U.
S. dealt with mental health issues in 2022, according to data from the National Institute of Mental Health, roughly 23% of the country’s adult population. The prevalence of mental health issues is also often inversely correlated with income levels, with lower-income adults more likely to suffer from mental health problems than affluent ones.
According to the California Health Interview Survey, conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the largest state health survey in the country, 20% of low-income adults – defined as those making less than 139% of the federal poverty level – in the state reported suffering serious mental health problems in 2021, compared to roughly 14% of high-income adults, those making more than 400% of the federal poverty level. Castruita said part of Care Solace’s mission is offering an alternative to a broader health care resource system that is often difficult to navigate and receive proper care. “We’re an accessible service for families and residents as opposed to going down a more difficult path in what’s been in place for years,” Castruita said.
“They’re calling the back of their insurance (card) and getting really minimal customer service, dismal customer service. So we want people to be aware of what we’re doing so that they can get the help that they need.” Care Solace FOUNDED: 2017 CEO: Chad Castruita HEADQUARTERS: Cardiff BUSINESS: Platform for simplifying and expediting care in mental health EMPLOYEES: 100+ FUNDING: $23.
5 million WEBSITE: www.caresolace.org NOTABLE: Care Solace provides multilingual assistance 24 hours a day year-round for those seeking mental health care resources and insurance information.
NOTABLE: Half of the 21 million people who have used Care Solace to access mental health care have public health insurance, no insurance or live in communities with significant barriers to access..
