[S01E01] Building the Mental Health System She Couldn't Find for Her Son: Hafeezah Muhammad, Backpack Healthcare:
What happens when a corporate executive cannot find a therapist for her own child on Medicaid?
In 2020, Hafeezah Muhammad's 6-year-old son was struggling with his mental health. As a senior executive at a large organization, she went looking for help and could not find it. Her son was on Medicaid, and the mental health care system was simply not built for children like him.
More than half of children in the United States rely on Medicaid. Most of them cannot access quality mental health care. Hafeezah left her corporate job and built Backpack, a mental health company designed specifically for the kids and families the system forgets.
In this episode, we talk about:
* Why children's mental health access remains a crisis in 2026
* How Backpack uses AI and technology to reduce therapist burnout
* The real cost of founder mental health and what it means to ask for help
* Why technology and compassion must coexist in mental health care
* What a preventive mental health system for children could look like
"Everyone walks around with an invisible backpack. The goal is to help lighten the load." Hafeezah Muhammad
Whether you are a healthcare founder, a business leader, a parent, or simply someone who believes the mental health system needs to change, this conversation is for you.
Guest: Hafeezah Muhammad, Founder and CEO of Backpack Health (hellobackpack.com [hellobackpack.com])
Host: Nans Rivat
New episodes drop every second Tuesday of the month.
Subscribe so you never miss one, and leave a review to help other listeners find the show.
Keywords: children's mental health, mental health access, Medicaid mental health, mental health startup, founder mental health, AI in mental health, therapist burnout, mental health leadership, healthcare innovation, pediatric mental health
Read more and subscribe to the newsletter :
https://thementalhealthcoffeebreak.substack.com/ [https://thementalhealthcoffeebreak.substack.com/]
