Starling Minds Inc.

Starling Minds Inc. operates a digital mental health platform that delivers self-directed, digitally-delivered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to employees of client organizations. The programs are licensed on a software-as-a-service basis to employers, unions and insurance providers, and are accessible to their employees, contractors and associates for the duration of the client contract. The company positions its offering as a way to address the barriers of cost, access and stigma that prevent employees from obtaining mental health care, and to reduce absence, presenteeism and disability costs for organizations.

The platform combines assessment and monitoring with structured therapeutic content. Components include ten-minute training sessions, shorter bite-sized practice exercises, a periodic "Check-Up" that tracks energy, resilience, anxiety and depression levels, live webinars on mindfulness and breathwork, an anonymous peer community, a "Mental Fitness Toolbox" for goal-setting, progress tracking, balancing negative thoughts and mood regulation, and a video library covering burnout, stress and anxiety. Crisis monitoring flags members at risk of self-harm or harm to others for follow-up by a Community Monitoring and Therapy team. The company's stated approach spans three areas: stepped care (assessing, monitoring and routing people to appropriate levels of support and identifying those needing more intensive intervention), leadership training, and personalized digital support.

A distinct product line, Starling Minds Return-to-Health, launched in April 2021, targets employees on absence or short-term disability leave and comes in physical and mental variants — the former supporting rehabilitation from a physical injury or illness, the latter for cases where a mental health condition is the primary claim. It is paired with StarlingHQ, a customer portal used by disability managers and clinicians to refer claimants, track referral status and therapy progression, and view engagement metrics and aggregated reporting on adoption rates, engagement and top stressors.

Business model

Starling Minds licenses its programs to organizational clients — employers, unions and insurance providers — on a software-as-a-service basis rather than selling directly to individuals. Individual members access the programs only while employed by or affiliated with a client organization, and access ends when the Starling Minds–client contract expires. Marketing materials frame the value proposition around reducing organizational costs from burnout, presenteeism, absenteeism and disability claims.

Contracts with organizations (employers, unions, insurers) that sponsor member access to the licensed programs; the programs are licensed, not sold, and member access is tied to the term of the client contract.

Traction

The company reports that its programs have helped thousands of individuals through employer, union or insurance channels, and that hundreds of Return-to-Health members had been served as of April 2021 with average improvements of 34.2% in anxiety scores and 31.3% in depression scores. Website-reported program outcomes include 90% of members agreeing Starling supported their mental health, 76% improving their mental health, and 58% and 62% improvements in anxiety and depression scores respectively. Published case studies describe a health authority reducing absenteeism by 10% in under six months and a healthcare worker returning to work.

Latest developments

Starling Minds' terms of use, privacy policy and acceptable use policy were last updated on 10 June 2024. The company's current positioning centres on burnout prevention through stepped care, leadership training and personalized digital support, with a burnout cost calculator and case studies on its site. Earlier milestones include the April 2021 launch of the Return-to-Health program and StarlingHQ customer portal, and the March 2020 launch of a free COVID-19 mental health program.