GreeneStone Healthcare is extending its lead in mental illness healthcare services by launching a specialty practice in trauma related mental health. This announcement comes shortly after GreeneStone launched its eating disorder practice by securing an inpatient clinic in Toronto. Furthermore, GreeneStone recently announced the hiring of several medical and therapeutic personnel to bolster the Company’s expertise in trauma. These announcements build upon the foundation in addiction treatment and mental health that GreeneStone established at its outset. GreeneStone CEO, Shawn Leon, commented on the recent developments, “We are establishing a huge first mover advantage in providing much needed, mental health related services. These are exciting times for GreeneStone.”
The latest expansion of GreeneStone’s service portfolio into trauma addresses the need for mental healthcare services aimed at First Responders, such as fire fighters, police, EMS personnel, and the military, who experience a broad range of physical and mental health consequences as a result of work-related exposures to crisis and disasters. Although First Responders frequently face mental illness issues as care providers, very little attention is paid to the effects of constant job stress on the mental health of First Responders. Risk factors for First Responders developing a more enduring traumatic stress reaction are more extensive and include a tendency by First Responders to isolate themselves from support, have nobody to talk with about stress, and a severe blending of personal and professional life in the workplace.
GreeneStone is expanding its expertise and service capacity in mental health related areas in the context of a crisis of mental healthcare availability. Examples of underserviced mental health niches abound. For example, in the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual survey sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the US, 23.1 million Americans were classified as needing substance use treatment, of which 2.6 million actually received treatment. The service gap, in this case, represents over 20 million Americans and contributes to the costs of addiction, estimated at over $325 billion annually.
This service gap is reflected in GreeneStone’s experience at its Muskoka, Canada addiction treatment facility. GreeneStone’s Muskoka addiction treatment is one of very few private facilities in Canada, where the addiction treatment sector is less developed than in the US. In less than one year after opening, the facility’s intakes are nearing capacity. Moreover, the Company has extended its service capacity in addiction treatment by opening an aftercare and outpatient clinic, the hiring of addiction counsellor, Andrew Galloway, and the recent addition of a team of trauma specialists to the Muskoka facility.
GreeneStone’s development strategy follows the exemplary lead of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UHG), which built a multi-service healthcare business that serves over 75 million worldwide by moving into vertical niches, such as population health management, mental health and substance abuse, and complex condition management, that complemented its core health benefits business. “In a similar fashion, we are building upon our early success in addiction treatment by moving into adjacent areas of expertise, such as aftercare, eating disorders, and now our First Responder and trauma specialty,” added Shawn Leon.
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