EdCircuit StaffFree version of platform helps clinicians reimagine their work through digital therapy tools
NEW YORK, August 24, 2022 – Presence, the leading provider of online therapy solutions for children with diverse needs, launches Kanga, a modern therapy platform for clinicians who serve children. Special education caseloads in schools have continued to rise, increasing backlogs, and driving clinician burnout. Presence is expanding the tools available to clinicians in schools, agencies, and independent practices. The technology company has developed a robust, clinician-designed online therapy platform for their own network of teletherapy providers, and made a version of it available to schools during the pandemic.
“Kanga was designed to respond to the challenges and opportunities our clinicians have experienced in their own practice,” said Kate Eberle Walker, CEO of Presence. “The resulting platform is a combination of their expertise and 13 years of our own data on how special education providers and students engage in therapy and evaluations.”
Presence is offering a free version of the platform for clinicians interested in exploring how they can incorporate technology into their therapy planning, documentation, and delivery. The free version gives access to a rich library of resources and caseload management features, including tools for documenting and tracking session notes and student profiles. It also allows them to conduct up to eight 30-minute teletherapy sessions a month. Individual clinicians can sign up for the free version of Kanga through Presence’s website.
Empowering Clinicians
Kanga is an interactive therapy platform designed to engage students and empower clinicians with access to a multitude of resources and caseload management tools all in one place.
Kanga helps clinicians simplify their jobs with access to new features:
- Documentation: With goal management, student metrics, session notes, and robust reporting features, clinicians can easily document notes and track metrics to help maintain compliance.
- Caseload management: With bulk management of students, detailed caseload view, and scheduling features, clinicians can access an easy-to-use interface built to amplify convenience for clinicians and facilitate therapy management easier by scheduling sessions on the platform.
Clinicians can access thousands of interactive games and activities, customize content for each session, and administer assessments, all in one central location. Presence partners with top publishers so clinicians can access a comprehensive selection of desirable assessments for online administration.
“It’s been very inspiring to see how student engagement has improved with Presence. Because of the robust selection of games, activities, and tools provided in the platform, our clinicians are seeing students grow their confidence, engagement, and skills in areas such as self-advocacy and self-esteem,” said Dr. Vangie Akridge, assistant director of special education for CalPac Charter Schools, which uses Kanga to deliver speech-language therapy, mental health counseling, and assessment services to students. “Even parents are more engaged in the work we are doing with their children. We get positive feedback from excited parents all the time expressing how they see their child has improved communicating their feelings, regulating their emotions, and socially interacting.”
A key benefit of the Kanga experience is the community and support that Presence offers to clinicians. Clinicians can utilize live in-room chat support for technical issues, on-demand training, and live office hours from Presence clinical experts.
“We have clinical experts who not only inform Kanga’s product design and upgrades, but who work to ensure that anybody using the platform understands and benefits from its clinical applications,” said Hannah Werner, MA, CCC-SLP, the Kanga clinical lead at Presence. “Our many support offerings help meet the unique needs and learning styles of clinicians.”
To learn more about Kanga by Presence, visit www.presencelearning.com/platform.
About Presence
Presence is the leading provider of online therapy solutions for children with diverse needs. At the heart of the company is a purpose-built therapy platform, designed by clinicians for clinicians, that allows school teams to serve children both in and out of school. It also allows schools to extend their teams with a highly skilled, licensed clinician from Presence’s national network of more than 2,500 speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and behavioral and mental health professionals. To date, Presence has delivered more than 5 million therapy sessions to schools and districts in every region of the U.S.
Presence is supported by Spectrum Equity, TPG’s The Rise Fund, Bain Capital Double Impact, and Catalyst Investors. For more information, visit www.presencelearning.com.
