Mental health challenges can be doubly difficult for first responders such as firefighters and police officers. Their jobs have higher-than-average levels of trauma, stress and danger. There are also deterrents to getting help, including a stigma for first responders seeking mental health care. And some worry they could lose their job if someone assumed they were unfit for duty because they wanted therapy.
“There’s still a perception that they have to be superhuman — ‘I’m not supposed to need help. I’m super tough, I can handle all of this,'” said Colleen Hilton, co-founder of Alli Connect, a Seattle-area startup that delivers mental health services to first responders through a confidential, easy-to-use service.
The Alli Connect platform provides routine mental health and wellness assessments, which might reveal depression, anxiety or other struggles that would benefit from therapy. The startup aims to get people into care before they burn out, are compromised on the job, or experience a mental health crisis.
If a first responder wants to meet with a therapist, Alli Connect acts as a matchmaker, using an AI-assisted tool to find a suitable provider. The platform also provides mental health education.
A 2023 report ordered by President Biden addressing first responders’ mental health called out the significant need to improve care. “[R]esearch demonstrates that law enforcement occupations can contribute to diminished psychological health and well-being that can have negative effects on personnel (and their families) and public safety,” the document states.
Other studies show that firefighters and police officers have rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder that are as much as five-times higher than the civilian population.
Alli Connect aims to be part of the solution.
The startup sells its service to police and fire departments and other agencies that want to provide employees, their families, and department retirees with care.
The platform is now available nationally, after initially focusing on Washington. Fire and police chiefs in the state have responded favorably, saying the platform fills a major gap in wellness.
Hilton, a licensed therapist who was married to a police officer for a decade, launched the company in 2020 under the name Thrivelution. Two co-founders have since exited and Hilton, who is CEO, rebranded and rebooted in April 2023. The company was in the Techstars Boston 2022 cohort.
A new SEC filing reveals that the company is raising a round of capital. The company declined to provide details about the funding.
The startup this week announced that former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona has joined its industry advisory board. In addition to his medical experience, Carmona is a U.S. Army veteran and worked as a deputy sheriff.
Patrick Madden, senior vice president and general manager at Axon, a leading police body camera company also known for its Taser devices, is on Alli Connect’s board of directors. He’s also an investor in the round currently being raised.
While the nation has a shortage of mental health providers, Hilton said her company has not struggled to find therapists. The providers matched through Alli Connect are not employees of the company and do not pay to be included on the platform, and retain their private practices.
Alli Connect screens the therapists to ensure that they have personal or professional experience that would provide skills and expertise for working with first responders. That “cultural competency” is key, Hilton said, for the therapist to earn the trust and confidence of their client. Care is delivered either in-person or through telehealth.
The company would like to keep expanding its reach, possibly serving members of the military and veterans.
“We have big goals to really be able to support a much wider group of Americans, and hopefully even [go] globally someday,” Hilton said. These are “the individuals who are putting their lives on the line for the rest of us.”
Alli Connect is co-headquartered in Snohomish, Wash., and Boston.
Richard Kasperowski is a co-founder and chief technology officer of Alli Connect. He also teaches agile software development at Harvard University and his background includes leadership in software development and engineering.
Nathan Leatherwood recently joined from CivicEye as head of growth.
The team has eight employees and is looking to add four more by the end of the year.
