Since its founding, Bark has been singularly focused on helping to keep kids safe online and in real life Today, we’re extending that mission to adolescents in treatment with the launch of Bark for Treatment.
The Current Issues with Technology in Treatment
As technology has become more integral to all of our lives, treatment providers who focus on adolescent and young adults have had to evolve their approach to how they handle technology with their patients. As one of our partners has remarked “They [patients] come in for treatment and so we take their phone away, and when they get it back, it’s like they’re suddenly right back to binging the triggering content that started their problems.” This problem is persistent across the industry. Anyone who manages a treatment program recognizes this as an issue.
The next question becomes what to do about it. Currently, every facility and provider is handling their technology strategy differently, often with mixed results. In some cases, coaches or therapists are checking phones at night after their patients check them in, but they have no way of knowing if anything was deleted before turning them in. This process is also extremely time consuming, and takes them away from other value-add activities that therapists and case managers could be doing instead.
How the Bark Phone Can Give Organizations More Control Over Technology
We see an opportunity to help the treatment industry standardize on one approach to managing patient tech by requiring the Bark Phone to be the standard cell device for adolescents in their care.
The Bark Phone enables treatment providers to create a phase approach to reintroducing phones with their patients. The first phase is typically highly restricted functionality, with features typically reduced down to phone calls and texting with approved contacts only, and for limiting the number of hours per day that it can be used.
Gradually, as patients progress in their treatment, providers can offer more functionality: some digital apps, more contracts, the camera, etc. All of this can be completely controlled and fully monitored by a therapist or case manager. In this phase, providers can use the monitoring service to better understand the mental health of their patients via th notifications that alert providers to potential dangers ranging from drug and alcohol use, to suicidal ideation. We have some partner providers who give their patients more room to make mistakes, and use those as coaching and therapy moments.
Eventually, fully functional phones can be enabled, but providers are still able to monitor the activity for concerning activities. This phase works well in outpatient phases of treatment. Lastly, when patients are able to graduate from a program, monitoring and management can be turned over to parents or a guardian who can keep track of progress and continue to be alerted if issues arise.
Want to Learn More?
We all need technology to function in the world, and this includes adolescents and young adults who are in treatment. Offering a program that gradually reintegrates a recovering patient into the digital world has become a critical part of treatment, and Bark is excited to partner with behavior health programs to standardize the process. Visit our treatment page to learn more about this exciting new technology.
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Bark helps families manage and protect their children’s digital lives.
