Mental Health America HQ

Much of our work is guided by the Before Stage 4 (#B4Stage4) philosophy – that mental health conditions should be treated long before they reach the most critical points in the disease process. When we think diseases like cancer or heart disease, we don't wait years to treat them. We start before Stage 4—we begin with prevention, identify symptoms, and develop a plan of action to reverse and hopefully stop the progression of the disease. So why don't we do the same for individuals who are dealing with potentially serious mental illness? Like other diseases, we need to address these symptoms early, identify the underlying disease, and plan an appropriate course of action on a path towards overall health. Mental Health America is committed to addressing mental health #B4Stage4.

First, MHA will develop and add additional screening tools to the program as funding is granted. Online resources specific to each condition will be expanded and provided upon completion of the screening to help respondents navigate their individual needs.

Second, MHA will continue to use the demographic data collected through the screenings to create targeted campaigns promoting early intervention.

Third, when the data is broken down by state, we can prioritize resources.

Finally, long-term plans for the online screening program include developing a Screening-to-Treatment live help line. We want to assist individuals interested in speaking with someone about their mental health to have the ability to speak with someone immediately after their screening. This is the time when they are actively demonstrating a proactive interest in their mental health.

More than 7,000 mental health screens are conducted each day and with the new Walgreens collaboration, a goal and anticipated outcome is increasing the number of daily screens. Metrics are determined using demographic data analysis and Google analytics.

As of 2021, nearly 13 million screens have been completed since MHA's online screening program launched in 2014, and this number continues to grow at a rapid rate as we add additional resources and expand our research efforts. MHA anticipates that over 5 million screens will be completed in 2022.