About Tend Health
A team at the intersection of heart and mind
Our Team
Dedicated. Passionate. Experienced.
We bring together an exceptional team of clinicians at the intersection of clinical care, health professions, and technology. Our background in health professions training and experience in healthcare unites us as a group with a deep understanding of the honor and responsibility of being a health professional.
Our collective experiences of the barriers for healthcare providers to access mental health support fuel our desire to create a system that eliminates those barriers.
We strive to create a world where all healthcare providers have access to exceptional mental health support and to create an organization where everyone has a deep passion for impacting that mission.
About the Founders
After years of working in academic medical settings, we decided to be the change by starting Tend Health. We are clinical health psychologists who have come together to serve the health professional community in a way no one else has done before.
Co-Founder, Tend Health
Tina Runyan, PhD, ABPP
I believe that improving our healthcare system starts with the people delivering care. I began this journey as all meaningful journeys begin – with oneself. To manage burnout, I experimented with practices, perspectives, and strategies to sustain my own well-being. I soon began to share these through curriculum development as well as local and national advocacy for culture change and transitioned my clinical practice to work exclusively with medical residents and fellows.
Co-Founder, Tend Health
Joan Fleishman, PsyD
I am passionate about how empowerment, connection, and innovation can be powerful tools in strengthening the health care delivery system. I believe deep relationships, high functioning teams, and creative spaces produce deliverable actions and cost-saving strategies. I like to bring people together to solve problems and improve systems, programs, and processes.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
Why We Exist
The need. The experience of becoming a healthcare professional and the day-to-day events are laden with responsibility, uncertainty, crisis, loss, and creating space for their patients’ needs. These experiences can have a lasting impact on mental health that compounds over time.
A time of crisis. Conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tend Health is an antidote to the mental health burdens plaguing health professionals.
Current state is inadequate. Organizations offer and pay health insurance, yet there are many barriers to accessing this care. Health professionals often pay out-of-pocket for mental health due to concerns regarding licensure and credentialing. Current models focus on pathology, lack flexibility, access, and expertise in caring for health professionals.
Reducing barriers. Tend Health directly minimizes barriers and increases access using technology and innovative delivery models.
Our North Star
Tend Health pledges to serve the healthcare community by:
Reducing stigma
Providing timely, convenient access
Expanding beyond traditional counseling
Enhancing privacy
Providing care by experts in caring for clinicians
Pay it Forward
Our commitment to all health professionals seeking care
At Tend Health, we are committed to providing services for all health professionals seeking care. To lead by example, we pledge to donate a portion of our annual revenue to our internal scholarship fund.
We hope you will join us.
While we are not a 501C3 company and cannot offer a tax dedication letter, your donation to our scholarship fund will be used exclusively to help health professionals who cannot afford our full fee. We welcome donations of any size.
We love staying connected to our community.
Tina Runyan, PhD, ABPP