What is Daylight, and how will it benefit your employees?

Get expert insight on how Daylight helps people manage worry and anxiety.

While COVID-19 fears have finally begun to wane, the US now struggles with the growing mental health crisis involving anxiety and depression. Recognizing the need to understand the full impact these conditions have had on Americans, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recently recommended that adults between the ages of 18 and 65 get screened for anxiety — even if they report no symptoms. The recommendations are intended to help primary care doctors recognize the signs of anxiety during routine checkups using screening tools such as anxiety measures, assessments, and questionnaires. 

While acknowledging anxiety’s prevalence and harm is an important step toward ending America’s mental health crisis, screening is only the first step. From there a provider must determine whether treatment is needed — and that’s where a clinical-grade digital therapeutic (DTx) like Daylight comes in.

The challenges of treating anxiety

There are numerous barriers that get in the way of people seeking treatment for anxiety, including the perception that treatment is unnecessary, the desire to pursue self help, and the fear of what other people will think of them. The barriers aren’t just internal though; there are also 157 million people living in areas where there is a significant shortage of mental health professionals.

When employers choose to offer Daylight as a mental health benefit to employees, it can break down all of those barriers. Here’s how:

1. Low perceived need – Many employees don’t recognize that their struggles are related to mental health. Benefits professionals can reach them through targeted, refined, friendly communication campaigns, such as encouraging them to take a private quiz to learn how anxiety may be affecting their life, such as the one offered in Daylight.

2. Desire to self-help – Even if employees recognize they need help, many are reluctant to talk to a professional. Digital therapeutics offer the best chance at meeting the desire for self-help. With self-paced, interactive modules accessed on any mobile device at any time, Daylight represents an unprecedented level of privacy and ease in mental healthcare.

3. Stigma – Many employees fear that acknowledging a mental health problem will result in judgment from coworkers, their job being at risk, and being perceived as weak. Digital therapeutics reduce the stigma surrounding mental health because they are completely anonymous, and can be used privately, at home or any other place of a person’s choosing.

4. Access – Even if an employee does decide to seek care via their EAP or behavioral health network, there is a shortage of mental health care providers. Daylight is a uniquely scalable solution that can sidestep that shortage and eliminate wait times, while at the same time providing the same “gold standard” of anxiety treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Why CBT is key to treating anxiety

There is no question that CBT is the gold standard in anxiety treatment, which means it is the treatment method most recommended by psychologists.

CBT is a type of evidence-based therapy that works by helping people break the cycle of unhelpful thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that cause them to get stuck. There are a number of cognitive and behavioral techniques that can help someone suffering from anxiety, including exposure, stimulus control, and progressive realization. Daylight teaches those techniques as it guides people on a path towards taking control of their anxiety.

This is critical, because anxiety is a condition that contains biological, psychological, and social components. CBT addresses all these elements by focusing on the thoughts and behaviors that contribute to anxiety. Changing those thoughts and behaviors can lead to a reduction in symptoms of anxiety and, ultimately, recovery from the condition.

In addition to providing clinical-grade treatment, Daylight is easy for employees to access and use. The program begins with an optional introductory quiz that helps identify underlying behavior patterns that are causing someone anxiety. Employees receive their main “Anxiety Type” result, as well as two other types with overlapping qualities, then they are prompted to sign up on the results page. Moving on to the “Let’s Get Started” questionnaire, employees will answer a set of intake questions to establish a clinical baseline, set goals, and get an overview of what they can expect. Treatment then begins with employees learning techniques like Exposure Therapy or practicing techniques they’ve already learned via the Practice Library.

While the mental health crisis remains a cause for concern, companies need to do more for their employees than acknowledge anxiety is prevalent and harmful. Daylight gives companies a scalable, effective mental health benefit to offer employees that could treat them now, before their symptoms become unmanageable.

See how your current mental health benefits stack up with our interactive tool. 

Daylight is available as an adjunct to usual medical care for generalized anxiety disorder for adults ages 18 and older, without FDA review under their COVID-19 policy.

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In accordance with FDA’s current Enforcement Policy for Digital Health Devices for Treating Psychiatric Disorders During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency, for patients aged 18 years and older, who are followed by and diagnosed with insomnia disorder by a medical provider, Sleepio can be made available as an adjunct to their usual medical care for insomnia disorder. Sleepio does not replace the care of a medical provider or the patient’s medication. Sleepio has not been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for these indications. Users are directed to not make any changes to their prescribed medication or other type of medical treatment without seeking professional medical advice.

DOC-1946 Effective 10/2022