Emotional support coaching in the palm of your hand

HONOLULU — As part of its commitment to offering the right care at the right time to support emotional health, Kaiser Permanente is expanding its no-cost digital mental health care options to include emotional support coaching. Kaiser Permanente adult members in Hawaii now have access to a no-cost, 90-day subscription to Ginger, a leading on-demand mental wellness solutions provider.

Ginger offers confidential, emotional support through on-demand coaching via text-based chats and skills-building content. Eligible Kaiser Permanente members can now use their smartphone to connect with a highly trained emotional support coach 24/7 — at no cost and with no referral or appointment needed. The private, one-on-one texting sessions provide support for coping with common challenges such as managing stress or getting better sleep.

“Kaiser Permanente selected Ginger to help provide pre-clinical coaching and support for those experiencing emotional distress," said John Yang, MD, president and medical director, Hawaii Permanente Medical Group. "The addition of Ginger expands Kaiser Permanente's commitment to preventive care, seeking to provide our members with immediate, personalized emotional support to help manage many of life's challenges and stressors.”

Emotional support coaching can provide in-the-moment support and may be able to reduce symptoms to prevent more serious health conditions from developing. With the Ginger app, Kaiser Permanente members can:

• Text with a coach anytime, anywhere, 24/7 for 90 days
• Discuss goals, share challenges, and create an action plan with their coach
• Get personalized, interactive skill-building tools from a library of more than 200 clinically validated activities and resources
• View recaps from each texting session, track their progress, and work with their coach to adjust action plans as needed

Hawaii is the third Kaiser Permanente market to make Ginger available to its members this year, following Colorado, which launched in March, and Mid-Atlantic States, which launched in May. Ginger will be made available in all Kaiser Permanente markets later this year. Eligible members can access the Ginger app by visiting kp.org/coachingapps/hi and clicking on the “Get Ginger” button found on the page. Members will be prompted to sign in using their kp.org user ID and password and then will be taken to Ginger where they can complete their registration and begin accessing coaching and additional resources. The 90-day, no-cost subscription to Ginger begins when the member activates an account.

Research suggests that coaching can help drive behavior changes and improvement in participants in 8 to 12 weeks. Eligible members will have unlimited access to text-based coaching during the 90-day subscription. Once the subscription period ends, members will continue to see their chat history and will be able to use Ginger's extensive self-care library to work on the skills they learned through coaching and will also have access to other digital self-care tools and support from Kaiser Permanente.

One year after initial activation, members will have the opportunity to start another 90-day subscription at no cost. For more details about the offer, members can visit kp.org/coachingapps/hi.

The new Ginger offering is the latest addition to Kaiser Permanente’s comprehensive mental health and wellness portfolio of services. In 2020, Kaiser Permanente added the first 2 apps to its digital self-care portfolio: Calm, a leading app for mindfulness meditation, and myStrength, an app designed to help people improve well-being and enhance sleep or mood. These digital self-help tools are in addition to, not a replacement for, treatment services provided by Kaiser Permanente’s mental health care clinicians.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 12.6 million members in 8 states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists, and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery, and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education, and the support of community health.