Lighthouse Psychology Files for IPO: Building an Integrated Offline-Online Mental Health Service Platform Centered on Clinical Psychology

In the past two years, the term “mental health and well-being” has appeared significantly more frequently in the public eye.

According to the big data on Baidu Mental Health Day searches released by Baidu in 2020, under the impact of the pandemic, search interest for content related to psychological assistance reached its highest level in nearly a decade, and patients with depression are becoming increasingly younger.

Behind the data lies the increasingly severe state of mental health among the general public.

According to authoritative statistical data, 16%–17% of the population in China suffers from various mental and psychological disorders. The disease burden attributable to mental and psychological conditions accounts for 13% of the total burden of non-communicable diseases, making it a major public health, social, and livelihood issue.

Against this backdrop, a growing number of entrepreneurs are entering the field, each carving out their own path to address market pain points. Among them is LightHouse Psychology, which is dedicated to research in psychotherapy, psychological education and training, and the practical application of psychology. In this article, we speak with Lin Hezhen, founder of LightHouse Psychology, to explore the company’s development trajectory in this sector.

For Lin and Zhen, entering the mental health sector was driven more by their recognition that the public’s burden of mental health disorders is becoming increasingly severe.

On the one hand, due to the impact of the pandemic, anxiety, insomnia, and depression have become more prevalent among the general public. On the other hand, negative incidents stemming from mental health issues have been frequently reported in the media over the past two years.

Although not a psychiatrist, Lin Hezhen has extensive clinical experience. Due to the nature of her work, she has maintained long-term collaboration with psychiatrists and has acquired substantial knowledge in mental health and psychology. Driven by these factors, Lin Hezhen began to consider specializing in the field of mental health and psychological well-being.

Compared to a decade ago, public attention to mental health has clearly increased significantly. However, the general public still struggles to accurately identify psychiatric and psychological disorders as well as emotional anxiety. Furthermore, stigma rooted in traditional beliefs discourages most individuals with mental health conditions from discussing their conditions with physicians or the general public. This has, to some extent, negatively impacted the rate at which individuals seek clinical care for psychiatric and psychological disorders.

Furthermore, in general, when individuals experience mild depression or anxiety, appropriate self-regulation and non-pharmacological interventions can be effective. However, this has indirectly fostered a cognitive misconception that mental and psychological disorders of any severity can be resolved through self-regulation alone.

However, the reality is that once a psychiatric or psychological disorder is diagnosed, treatment and management through medication and medical interventions are required. Therefore, professional diagnostic and therapeutic services are indispensable for patients with psychiatric and psychological disorders.

However, after a period of observation, Lin and Zhen found that while there was a vast number of psychological counseling platforms and studios across China offering non-pharmacological interventions such as psychological counseling, the number of private specialized clinics capable of providing diagnostic and treatment services for psychiatric and psychological disorders was relatively small, failing to meet the continuously growing demand for such care. Taking Fujian Province, where LightHouse Psychology is based, as an example, all psychiatric hospitals and outpatient departments in the province were public institutions prior to the establishment of LightHouse Psychology’s psychiatric clinic.

In light of this, at its inception, Beacon Psychology chose to focus on professional diagnostic and therapeutic services as the core of its business development, while simultaneously targeting the private outpatient psychiatric sector—a market with substantial growth potential—by establishing a psychiatric clinic.

This decision was made possible by the resources Lin and Zhen have accumulated in the field of mental health. It is reported that another core member of the founding team of Lighthouse Psychology not only has over 20 years of clinical experience in specialized psychiatric care but also possesses in-depth expertise in the research of psychotropic medications. Furthermore, Lighthouse Psychology’s expert team comprises senior psychiatrists from prestigious institutions such as Peking University Sixth Hospital, Xiangya School of Medicine, and the Shanghai Mental Health Center, thereby fully ensuring the professionalism of its services.

In terms of target clientele, driven by rising socioeconomic levels and consumption upgrades, an increasing number of consumers and patients are opting for premium healthcare services with superior quality. Given that the diagnosis and treatment of mental and psychological disorders place greater emphasis on service and communication quality, Lighthouse Psychology’s offline clinics adopt a premium healthcare service model, dedicated to providing patients with an enhanced service experience.

Another issue currently facing the mental health industry is the shortage of high-quality medical resources. By the end of 2019, there were 5,529 mental health medical institutions across China, including 2,096 specialized psychiatric hospitals and 3,433 psychiatry and psychology departments in general hospitals. Nationwide, there were 46,300 licensed (assistant) psychiatrists, with the number of psychiatrists per 100,000 people falling far short of international standards.

Compared with psychiatrists, psychotherapists are even scarcer. By the end of 2017, there were only about 6,000 psychotherapists in China.

In light of this issue, relying solely on offline outpatient services is clearly insufficient to meet the current large-scale public demand for mental health and psychological well-being.

The emergence of internet healthcare has effectively addressed this issue. On one hand, the application of the internet enables high-quality medical resources to reach a broader patient population. On the other hand, using the internet as a medium for doctor-patient communication can effectively alleviate patients’ sense of stigma. Moreover, the diagnosis and treatment of mental and psychological disorders generally do not rely on biochemical testing or physical examinations, making them inherently highly compatible with internet-based delivery.

Therefore, within Lighthouse Psychology’s development trajectory, offline psychiatric clinics primarily serve as a support foundation for its internet hospital initiatives.

In terms of business operations, Dengta Psychology’s service offerings are not limited to clinical services for individual consumers (C-end users); instead, the company plans to simultaneously provide group psychological education, psychological assessments, and clinical services to institutional clients (B-end), including judicial authorities, government agencies, enterprises, and public institutions.

In addition, Beacon Mind offers online functional products such as “Beacon Classroom” and “Beacon Diary,” which facilitate science-based health education and allow patients to record their emotional well-being. These features not only enhance the granularity of services but also assist physicians in making more precise assessments of patients’ conditions.

From the perspective of Lin Hezhen, the value of internet hospitals lies not only in meeting the diagnostic and treatment needs of more patients but also in leveraging the internet as a service platform to accumulate vast amounts of data generated during the service process, thereby providing strategic guidance for future business expansion. Therefore, in the coming phase, Lighthouse Psychology will prioritize data collection and application as a key direction for the company’s development.

Furthermore, Dengta Psychology will gradually open two to three offline psychiatric and psychological clinics in the near future, progressively establishing a chain-based clinical psychological service system. Nevertheless, within Dengta Psychology’s development roadmap, the online internet hospital will remain the core focus of the company’s future growth.

To support the company’s future market expansion, Lighthouse Psychology is currently undertaking a financing plan. As a platform centered on professional diagnostic and therapeutic services, Lighthouse Psychology will continue to deepen its expertise in clinical psychology, consistently serving patients and empowering the industry from a professional and scientific perspective.