Cerebral is laying off 20% of its staff, citing an ongoing push for efficiency at the digital health unicorn.

“Today’s changes are part of Cerebral’s ongoing transformation program, which drives to create more sustainable growth and stability, while further delivering our mission to democratize access to high-quality mental health care for all,” a Cerebal spokesperson told TechCrunch. “These changes are focused specifically on realizing operational efficiencies while prioritizing clinical quality and safety across the organization.”

The company did not explain what type of severance, if any, was offered to employees, but did tell TechCrunch “we are doing everything we can to support our impacted colleagues as they pursue other opportunities.”

Cerebral’s model explains care counselors meet with patients regularly to manage medications prescribed by clinicians and provide support.

The SoftBank-backed company has come under scrutiny for making it easier to provide ADHD medication to potential clients. Perhaps too easy: allegations led to an investigation by the Department of Justice into potential violations of the Controlled Substances Act for overprescribing prescriptions such as Adderall.

“Based on recent feedback from stakeholders, it is clear that this has become a distraction from our focus to democratize access to mental health care services, provide treatment for more patients and add service lines for new conditions,” Robertson said in the release.

Earlier this year Cerebral laid off “hundreds” of people, primarily affecting its support and operations team to better its programs. At the time, the company did not provide any details to TechCrunch explaining any severance offered to employees.

Current and former Cerebral employees can contact Andrew Mendez by e-mail at andrew.mendez@techcrunch.com or on Signal, a secure encrypted messaging app, at 669-832-6800.

Telehealth unicorn Cerebral lays off 20% of staff for ‘operational efficiencies’ by Andrew Mendez originally published on TechCrunch

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