Coming soon

One platform. Three sides of care, finally working together.

hey cara connects providers, care coordinators, and families in a single system — matched and personalized by an AI-powered directory, so every family gets an experience built around them, not a generic referral list with hundreds of options and no guidance.

Join the waitlist See how it works

our why

Built from a mom's actual experience — not a hypothetical one.

hey cara comes out of Collective Autism Experience (CAE), started by an autism mom with a PhD in clinical psychology who found the post-diagnosis journey overwhelming, confusing, and fragmented. She had no one to reach out to — there was no care coordinator — so she built one. CAE has spent years doing hands-on Autism Family Navigation with real families post-diagnosis. hey cara exists to reach more families than any one team could alone — with continuity of care and access built in from the start.

— Dr. Nikki Sammet, Founder

the name

Why "cara"?

Cara is Irish for "friend" — and it echoes "care" on purpose.

"Hey cara, I need help."

It's a name built to be said at 11pm, mid-crisis, without thinking twice. Not a portal. Not a case number. A friend who happens to know exactly where to point you next.

the problem

After the diagnosis, families are left to hold it all together — alone.

Diagnosing practitioners have no idea where their families end up once they leave the room.

Care coordinators and providers can't keep up with an ever-changing landscape — insurance changes, age-outs, shifting supports, and everything in between.

No one is holding the whole picture, so the family becomes the one tracking it — on top of everything else they're carrying.

This is what hey cara's navigators do instead. They track every one of those moving details — insurance, age-outs, provider changes — so nothing falls through. Our AI-powered directory lets that happen efficiently, without losing what makes each family's situation different.

Families get a lighthouse and a guide — a roadmap, an action plan, and the right care team around them.

Why this matters, in numbers

This isn't a soft problem. For autism families specifically, it shows up in wait times, in unmet needs, and in how often coordination just doesn't happen.

1 in 31

8-year-olds in the U.S. identified with autism spectrum disorder — up from 1 in 44 just a few years ago. This isn't a shrinking need.

CDC, Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network

90%

Of children with autism have complex healthcare needs — requiring specialized services or therapies most families weren't trained to coordinate on their own.

HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau

28%

Of parents whose autistic child saw multiple providers say someone actually helped coordinate that care. The other ~72% pieced it together themselves.

National Autism Indicators Report, Health & Health Care

61%

Of autism evaluation centers report wait times longer than four months; 15% report waits over a year or waitlists closed to new referrals entirely.

iSPI survey of U.S. autism centers

<50%

Of children with autism receive the specialized services they need to meet developmental milestones by age 4 — the window when intervention matters most.

HRSA, 2023–2024 National Survey of Children's Health

63%

Of families only receive a diagnosis after their child's third visit with a professional — a system built for people who already know how to navigate it.

Study on gaps in access to autism resources, U.S.

Figures drawn from published CDC, HRSA, and peer-reviewed research on autism prevalence, service access, and care coordination; sources noted per card. This isn't proprietary hey cara data — it's the backdrop the platform is built against.

No more fragmented care between providers, navigators, and families

Providers, coordinators, and families each get a view built for what they actually need to do.

For providers

Sit inside an AI-powered directory that matches families to you based on real fit — need, specialty, insurance, availability — instead of being one static listing among hundreds.

For care coordinators & case managers

Manage every family's roadmap, provider matches, and handoffs from one workspace — eval translation and care plans built in, so nothing depends on any one person's memory. Replaces the spreadsheet-per-family workaround most teams are running today.

For families

Log in directly to see your own roadmap, message your navigator, and get matched to providers — plus Cara, the AI companion, for the questions that come up between appointments.

The AI-powered directory