Providing access to personalized care for your patients in need of intensive behavioral health support

We accept patient referrals from a wide range of sources including 988 lines, emergency departments, inpatient units, outpatient behavioral health clinicians, and primary care providers.

Prospective Partners: Get in TouchExisting Partners: Make a Referral

Our Approach

Who We Treat

We care for patients with a wide range of conditions including major depressive disorder with suicidal ideations, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, post traumatic stress disorder, among others.

Multidisciplinary Care Team

Our care team includes psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, therapists, certified peers & care managers. Patients have access to 24/7 crisis support throughout the program.

Personalized Care Plans

Our clinicians work with patients to create personalized treatment plans centered on evidence-based and recovery-oriented care.

Learn More

The Problem

Many providers without intensive behavioral health expertise expect the emergency room is the only referral option for their patients experiencing behavioral health crises, which often leads to unnecessary downstream hospitalizations and readmissions.

The ER is the only place where patients of all levels of acuity are guaranteed to be seen quickly

Limited access to intensive programs results in unnecessary hospitalizations

Existing IOPs are highly restrictive (e.g., 9 hrs/week) resulting in higher drop-out and risk of readmissions

Example of a patient journey in crisis

Patient is experiencing suicidal ideation

Therapist does not feel equipped to care for the patient, refers them to the ER

Patient spends 72 hours in boarding while the team tries to find ongoing care, delay in access results in transfer to inpatient care

Patient spends 7 days in inpatient care where they start antidepressants and plan next stage of treatment

Patient begins IOP program where they receive first therapy session, 10 days later

Patient cannot make 3 hours / day sessions, drops out before improvement is noticed, increasing risk of readmission

How we help

Outpatient Providers
Hospital Systems
Crisis Lines

Willow supports providers without intensive behavioral health expertise, such as primary care providers and therapists focused on mild to moderate care, by serving as a referral option for patients in crisis that is more therapeutically oriented and cost effective than the emergency room.

Willow supports hospital systems by serving as a high quality, accessible provider of intensive behavioral health care that hospital staff can confidently refer patients to post discharge.

Willow partners with crisis lines (e.g. 988) as a referral option for patients in need of additional intensive behavioral health support following their initial de-escalation by crisis line counselors.

What to expect

for Patients
for Providers
Initial Assessment
  • Patients sign up for an assessment for the same or next day, which they are able to complete from the comfort of home.
  • The assessment is led by a therapist and a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner. Patients co-create a treatment plan based on their unique needs.
Ongoing Care
  • Throughout the 8 - 12 week program, patients can meet with the same clinicians to enhance continuity of care.
  • Patients' treatment programs include a personalized combination of the following, as needed:
    - Medication management
    - Therapy, including Collaborative Assessment & Management of Suicidality (CAMS) for patients with suicidal ideation
    - Recovery coaching
    - Care management
Connection to Community
  • Our teams work hand-in-hand with patients to connect them to the most appropriate next level of care post discharge

A Trusted Partner for Behavioral Health Crisis Support

  • We accept patient referrals from a range of provider channels including 988 lines, emergency departments, inpatient units, outpatient behavioral health clinicians, and primary care providers.
  • We help our partners establish continuity of care for their patients with high acuity behavioral health needs by providing intensive yet cost-effective care that patients can access from home.
  • Our referral and intake processes are seamless by design to minimize friction for our partners, as well as our patients.
Refer a Patient

Our clinical model is centered on evidence-based methods that improve outcomes & reduce unnecessary costs

Safety & efficacy of virtual care programs for behavioral health patients.
Efficacy of The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) as a treatment framework for reducing suicidal ideation.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as an effective means of treating mental health disorders.
Impact of peer support in reducing ER and hospital visits and improving clinical outcomes.
The impact of a Brief Critical Time Intervention (BCTI) model on reducing psychiatric readmissions.

Meet a few members of our Care Team

Christina Gerdes, MD
Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer

11 years of experience

Nikhil Nadkarni, MD
Medical Director

7 years of experience

Eileen Hopkins, NP
Crisis Behavioral Health Clinician

4 years of experience

Aaron-Lorenzo Milton, LCSW
Crisis Behavioral Health Clinician

16 years of experience

Tristie Tappin, LMHC
Crisis Behavioral Health Clinician

15 years of experience

Rayssa Gomez Hidalgo, LMHC
Crisis Behavioral Health Clinician

3 years of experience

Zachary Johnson, CASAC-T
Certified Peer Specialist

4 years of experience

Rasslyn Baez
Care Manager

8 years of experience

Ardita Avdiu
IOP Clinician

3 years of experience

Michelle Vazquez
IOP Clinician

10 years of experience

David Kim, NP
IOP Clinician

2 years of experience

Partner with us

We partner with providers across a range of channels including 988 lines, emergency departments, inpatient units, outpatient behavioral health, and primary care. If you're interested in partnering with us, please fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch.

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