The College Drop Off

So my bride and I have moved four kids into college but #5 was the most bittersweet, our youngest and farthest move, 1,585 miles away in south Florida where, yes, the sun sticks to you like cellophane, and you wear humidity like a hoodie. Tommy now leaves us helpless to figure out how to turn on the Netflix after a storm, but I was happy to hear that the college orientation team is using a survey system to connect with students like Tom and match them to peer mentors to be a support system for them in the coming year, to “go for a jog, walk and talk” program around the campus lake. The concept reminds me of what health insurers like BCBS North Carolina did in using predictive analytics AI to identify people at high mental health or addiction risk then matching them to peer navigators. It reminds of groups like Vita Health trying to provide suicide care without the barriers of office walls and pre-authorizations, just three months of support when and where it’s needed, amidst a crisis. And it reminds me of what groups like the Boston Bulldogs Running Club do in supporting people trying to stay sober after overdose. It’s boots on the ground, peer to peer, organized around a moment in time – outside. And what I liked best about the University of Miami program is that it’s student-led prevention-oriented triage. College is expensive, many say unaffordable, but it is the first place kids often learn how to think and be on their own and often the single hardest life transition – perhaps rivaled only by moms postpartum — that sets off a spiral of decisions and behaviors and often addictions that the health system, educators and policy makers are trying to solve. A lot of the investment in mental health in the last 5 years has been in triage and outpatient therapy, in apps and linking people to therapists, but my sources in psychiatry and more than 60% of 1,300 families I’ve polled each month for the last 10 years say it isn’t exactly working, at least not getting people to make progress and avoid crisis. These new-fangled “in person peer led” models are encouraging to me if only because they meet people where they are at but are relying on one simple premise - we feel better when we are moving. Is there an investable business model here? Absolutely in my opinion, at least with the right approach. For those trying to find a way to invest in behavioral healthcare, consider leaning into local organizations that are trying to match care to person and focus less on training and therapy around “conditions and symptoms” but more so around “events and situations.” There’s definitely a way to scale that and, in my opinion, make a real difference for people in transition.