Mindpath is a cautionary tale for private equity in mental health

As a Covid-driven mental health crisis enveloped the U.S. in 2020, two private equity firms began rapidly buying up psychiatric practices from coast to coast. By late last year, they owned more than 100 therapy clinics in eight states — rebranded as Mindpath Health — and had plans to expand further.

Therapy, from a private-equity perspective, was ripe for the taking, and the company’s timing seemed ideal, given the surge in demand for outpatient mental health care. But at the start of this year, Mindpath suddenly laid off fleets of staff and shuttered some locations it had acquired just over a year earlier.