A pilot mental health program built for the certification reality of regional and charter flying.
A private clinical channel for the pilots who fly your routes under real schedule pressure and a real fear that asking for help costs them their medical. Matched clinicians who understand the aeromedical landscape. Extended sessions. No carrier visibility into who has engaged.
A private clinical channel for the flight decks of regional and charter operators.
This page is for chief pilots, directors of operations, peer support and aeromedical leads, and human resources teams at regional carriers, charter and fractional operators, and Part 135 fleets scoping a pilot mental health channel that operates outside the carrier's existing EAP and benefits stack. If that is you, the rest of this page is the briefing document.
CEREVITY operates as a clinical network with direct relationships between the network, the clinicians, and the carrier. There is no third-party broker layer. Pilots are matched, not first-served. Scheduling and intake run through CEREVITY infrastructure. Care is private-pay, out-of-network, and structurally outside the carrier-sponsored channel by design, which is precisely the structure a pilot population needs in order to engage at all.
Our clinicians are independent licensed professionals. Many have worked with aviators and other certificate-dependent professionals before and understand what is and is not reportable, what triggers a deferral, and what the certification process actually feels like from the pilot's side. CEREVITY exists because the structural realities of the aeromedical system leave pilots avoiding care rather than risking their livelihood, and because a channel for this population has to be built differently.
The reason a pilot will not call the EAP is not weakness. It is a rational response to how the certification system is structured.
When a pilot weighs whether to seek care, the calculation is not only clinical. It is occupational. A medical certificate is the license to earn, and the perception that disclosure threatens it is the single largest barrier to a pilot getting help. That barrier is structural, not personal.
The FAA's own Mental Health and Aviation Medical Clearances Rulemaking Committee identified the barriers to pilot care in plain terms: culture, trust, fear, stigma, financial cost, and a process most pilots find opaque and slow. These are not failures of individual pilots. They are properties of the system the pilot operates inside, and they produce a predictable result, which is that pilots manage symptoms privately rather than risk their certificate.
An EAP was built for a general workforce that can disclose a mental health concern without the disclosure itself carrying occupational consequence. A pilot cannot assume that. The fear that a clinical record could surface during aeromedical review reshapes the entire help-seeking calculus, and a benefits channel that does not account for that reality will sit unused no matter how well-intentioned it is.
What changes when the channel is built around this reality: clinicians who understand the certification landscape and the difference between a clinical conversation and a reportable event, session formats long enough to do real work, scheduling that respects a line pilot's calendar and reserve days, and a confidentiality posture that gives the carrier no visibility into who has engaged or with what.
What CEREVITY clinicians actually treat on the line.
The clinical scope is built around the presenting profile of working pilots at regional and charter operators, not the workforce-wide profile an EAP is built for.
Certification fear
The fear that getting help will cost the medical is itself a clinical issue, and often the one keeping a pilot from any care at all. Treated directly, with clinicians who understand what is and is not reportable.
Chronic fatigue and circadian disruption
Early shows, red-eyes, reserve unpredictability, and time-zone churn degrade sleep architecture over years. The result is not just tiredness, it is a measurable mood and cognitive cost that compounds across a career.
High-functioning anxiety
Performance maintained at cost. The checkrides pass, the line operates clean, and the cost is invisible until it is not. Common in pilots carrying years of unspoken strain.
Post-incident processing
A go-around gone wrong, a diversion, a serious mechanical, or a near-miss leaves a clinical signature. Most pilots compartmentalize and fly the next leg. The unprocessed version of that event has a way of resurfacing.
Career and schedule pressure
Upgrade timelines, seniority moves, commuting, and the financial squeeze of the regional tier produce a particular chronic stress. When it stops being seasonal and becomes structural, it becomes a treatable issue.
Relationship and home strain
Days away from home, missed milestones, and a partner managing the household alone put real load on relationships. The pilot who looks fine on the flight deck is often carrying this home and nowhere to put it.
Substance and coping concerns
The line between unwinding and a developing pattern matters enormously in this profession. Early, confidential, non-judgmental work is exactly where a concern is most treatable and least likely to become a reportable event.
Identity and career transition
For pilots, the certificate and the identity are fused. Medical setbacks, forced time off, and the runway to retirement are clinical events, not just career events, and the isolation of them is itself treatable.
Three session formats, each chosen for the work.
Most benefits programs offer one session length. CEREVITY offers three, because different kinds of clinical work need different amounts of time, and a pilot's schedule does not always cooperate with a standard hour. The choice is made between the clinician and the pilot, not by what a payor will reimburse.
The steady cadence of ongoing therapy. Most clients spend most of their care here.
For work that needs more room than a standard hour can hold.
For work that needs uninterrupted time to reach resolution.
Because CEREVITY operates outside the insurance reimbursement model, session length is set by the clinical work, not by what a payor will reimburse. The 50-minute format handles ongoing work, the 90-minute format gives room for deeper sessions, and the 3-hour format exists for intensive work that does not fit a standard hour. That is the structural reason all three formats can exist on the same network.
Ready to scope a flight-deck briefing?
Briefings are scoped to your operation. We respond personally within 48 business hours with proposed times and any prepared materials relevant to the shape you are evaluating.
Request a briefingHow a pilot is matched.
Matched, not first-served. Here is the process that produces the match for a working pilot.
The eligible individual submits a confidential intake form covering presenting issues, modality preference, professional context, and scheduling parameters. Operated by CEREVITY, not a broker.
Intake is reviewed by CEREVITY's clinical leadership against the network's active capacity, current licensure footprint, and modality availability. The step that does not exist in an EAP.
A specific clinician is matched to the pilot. They receive the match with the clinician's profile, modality, and credentials, plus a direct online scheduling link.
Scheduling runs directly through CEREVITY infrastructure. No phone handoff. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of the match.
Care continues on the cadence the clinical work requires, in 50-minute, 90-minute, or 3-hour sessions, without an employer-imposed cap.
Capability comparison for Regional and Charter Airline Pilots.
An evaluation framework on the dimensions that matter when scoping a flight-deck-aware-tier offering for pilots. Both models have a place; they are designed for different populations.
| Dimension | Typical EAP | Executive-tier platform | CEREVITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network model | Broker layer between carrier and contractor roster | Single-vendor platform, W-2 or contracted pool | Independent clinical network with direct relationships |
| Clinician assignment | First contractor to reply with availability | Algorithmic matching on intake-form inputs | Clinical review by network leadership |
| Intake and scheduling | Phone handoff to clinician's line | App-based intake and scheduling | Network-operated intake, direct online scheduling |
| Session formats | Standard 50-minute; capped session counts | Standard 45 to 50-minute sessions | 50-minute, 90-minute, and 3-hour formats, no cap |
| Clinical scope | Acute, broadly applicable concerns | Workforce-wide, executive tier as upsell | Built around Regional and Charter Airline Pilots presenting issues |
| Modality fit | Generalist talk therapy | Generalist therapy with some specialty | CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, matched at intake |
| Reach | National via roster density | National telehealth, roster variance | All 50 states via telehealth |
| Payment model | Carrier-sponsored, in-network | Per-employee-per-month seat pricing | Private-pay, out-of-network, partnership agreement |
| Carrier visibility | Aggregate, broker-mediated | Vendor dashboards with engagement | Administrative reporting only |
| Right fit for | Workforce-wide acute support | Mid-tier ongoing with executive add-on | Regional and Charter Airline Pilots, end-to-end |
What the carrier sees, and what it does not.
For a flight-deck-aware-tier channel to function, the participating pilot has to trust that engaging with it does not create visibility into their care. CEREVITY is built around that requirement.
- Confirmation that contracted services were provided to eligible individuals.
- Aggregate utilization at the partnership level, where contractually appropriate.
- Invoicing and eligibility reconciliation.
- Nothing tied to a specific named pilot's clinical content.
- Whether a specific named pilot has scheduled, attended, or engaged.
- What clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned.
- Session notes, treatment plans, or diagnostic information.
- Any attendance detail at the individual level.
Clinicians are independent licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. Protected health information is held within the clinical infrastructure, and the agreements governing it are defined in writing before the partnership goes live.
Clinical records, session content, and individual engagement data sit inside the clinical platform. The administrative layer the partner interacts with is structurally separate from the clinical layer.
Eligibility lists are maintained on the partner side and confirmed at the point of intake. Administering eligibility does not require the partner to receive clinical information back.
A Business Associate Agreement is executed where the partnership structure requires it. The partnership agreement defines the administrative reporting scope in writing before the partnership goes live.
What the first 30 days look like.
The hardest part of a flight-deck-aware-tier partnership is not the contract. It is the period between signature and the first pilot in care.
A 60-minute kickoff with your team and CEREVITY's partnership lead. We confirm the partnership shape, the eligibility model, the administrative reporting scope, and the internal owner. The BAA, where applicable, is executed.
Your team provides the eligible-individual list. CEREVITY confirms it against the network and establishes the verification path at intake. Only eligibility confirmation flows forward.
CEREVITY provides a confidential, flight-deck-aware-appropriate comms template explaining the benefit, the privacy posture, and how to access intake. Designed to be received without stigma.
Eligible individuals begin intake on their own cadence. First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days. By day 30, the partnership is operational and a quarterly review cadence is in place.
The business case for the operations and safety leadership.
Three axes a director of operations, a chief pilot, or a safety leader can defend in a budget conversation. The numbers will vary by carrier; the structural argument does not.
Pilot retention is a per-departure problem at the regional tier.
Recruiting, training, and typing a line pilot is a significant multi-month investment, and the regional tier loses pilots to majors, to other operators, and out of aviation entirely. A clinical channel that helps a pilot stay healthy and stay flying pays for itself across very few prevented departures, because the cost of replacing a qualified pilot is not a workforce-average number.
A healthy flight deck is a safety input, not a soft benefit.
Fatigue, unprocessed stress, and untreated mental health load are operational risk factors, not personal ones. A confidential channel that lets pilots address strain early, before it becomes a performance or grounding event, is a defensible investment in the same line item as any other safety program.
Recruiting and reputation in a tight pilot market.
Pilots increasingly evaluate how an operator treats them as people, not just as crew. A named, confidential, flight-deck-aware mental health channel is a differentiating signal in a competitive hiring market and a credible answer when a candidate asks what the carrier actually does for its pilots.
Questions pilots and their teams ask first.
Clinicians in the CEREVITY network are independently licensed professionals operating under their own licensure and the confidentiality and privacy obligations that attach to it. The handling of any protected health information, and the specific agreements that govern it including any Business Associate Agreement, are defined in writing in the partnership agreement before the partnership goes live, scoped to your carrier's structure.
No. Administrative reporting only. The carrier receives confirmation that contracted services were provided to eligible individuals and aggregate utilization where contractually appropriate. The carrier does not see whether a specific named pilot has scheduled, attended, or engaged, what clinical issues are being addressed, or which clinician is assigned. This is contractually scoped before the partnership goes live.
CEREVITY is not an aeromedical service, does not issue or affect medical certificates, and does not represent itself as a workaround to the certification process. Clinicians are bound by their licensure-specific obligations. The value of the channel is that pilots can address strain early and confidentially, which for many is the difference between getting help and avoiding care entirely. Aeromedical questions remain with the pilot's AME and the FAA.
Clinicians in the CEREVITY network are bound by their licensure-specific mandatory reporting obligations, and CEREVITY does not represent itself as a way around them. CEREVITY is designed to complement, not replace, a carrier's peer support program and any aeromedical pathway. For concerns that rise to an impairment or safety-of-flight level, the appropriate established channels remain in place.
No. CEREVITY is private-pay and out-of-network by design. The structure is intentional: it is the only way to deliver the clinical scope, session formats, and confidentiality posture a pilot population requires in order to engage.
Pricing depends on the shape of the engagement, the size of the eligible pilot population, and how the carrier administers benefits. The briefing call is where we identify the right structure, and the cost falls out of that, not the other way around.
First sessions are typically scheduled within 5 to 10 business days of intake, depending on modality requirements and scheduling parameters.
Through a briefing call. Use the form below or email [email protected] directly. Briefings are scoped to your carrier; we respond personally within 48 business hours.
Tell us about your operation. We respond within 48 business hours.
Briefings are scoped to your carrier. Share a few details below and we will respond personally with proposed times and any prepared materials relevant to the pilot channel you are evaluating.
The structural argument on this page is based on the firsthand experience of CEREVITY clinicians who have served on EAP panels, combined with widely-published industry estimates of EAP utilization and Regional and Charter Airline Pilots-specific data where cited. Specific contractual scopes are confirmed in writing in the partnership agreement before any partnership goes live.
