What You Should Know:
– Yung Sidekick, a US-based startup developing an AI-powered platform for mental health professionals, announced the release of its new Progress Tracking feature.
– Designed as a measurement-based care (MBC) tool, this feature helps therapists monitor patient progress between formal assessments, tracking changes in depression, anxiety and life satisfaction on a session-by-session basis.
Revolutionizing Mental Health Care: Yung Sidekick’s AI-Powered Automation and Progress Tracking Feature
Yung Sidekick is an AI-driven platform designed to streamline administrative tasks for mental health professionals, enabling them to focus on client care rather than documentation. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Miami, Florida, the platform generates HIPAA-compliant, EHR-ready progress notes and detailed session reports with actionable insights for both therapists and clients within a minute. Notably, it does not store personal health information or client details, ensuring stringent data privacy.
To facilitate Measurement-Based Care (MBC)—the regular collection and analysis of patient feedback to guide treatment—Yung Sidekick introduced its innovative Progress Tracking feature. While MBC has proven to improve patient outcomes, its adoption remains limited to fewer than 20% of mental health professionals due to time and workflow constraints. Traditional approaches, such as using standardized questionnaires like PHQ-9, GAD-7, and SWLS, are often cumbersome. Yung Sidekick addresses these barriers by integrating real-time assessments directly into therapy sessions.
The Progress Tracking feature evaluates a patient’s mental state across three domains—depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction—based on session observations rather than historical data. Key highlights include:
– Real-Time Insights: Immediate feedback on patient progress during each session, eliminating the need for time-intensive manual scoring.
– Alignment with Standardized Metrics: Scores are presented as easy-to-read values (0–100%) alongside original questionnaire scores for context.
– Visualization of Trends: Intuitive graphs enable therapists to track patient scores across sessions, revealing patterns, progress, or early warning signs of clinical concerns.
Beyond monitoring, this feature enhances therapeutic decision-making. Changes in a patient’s mental state are flagged and contextualized with direct quotes, allowing therapists to validate or dismiss concerns based on patient-reported experiences. This proactive approach facilitates timely interventions and risk management, supporting improved clinical outcomes.
By automating routine tasks and integrating actionable MBC tools, Yung Sidekick empowers therapists to deliver more effective, patient-centered care while addressing barriers to MBC adoption.
“We know therapists want to integrate measurement-based care into their practice, but sending formal assessments like the PHQ-9 every week is not always feasible,” said Michael Reider, CEO and Co-Founder of Yung Sidekick. “Our feature offers a new way to track patient progress, detect patterns, and make adjustments to treatment plans as necessary – without the need for frequent questionnaires. We believe this combination of formal assessments and continuous progress tracking ensures the best possible outcomes for patients”.
