By Deryk Van Brunt, DrPH

The United States needs to move from a mental health system that is primarily a reactive care model, to a full spectrum population-based mental health system of care.

Over the last 20 years, the United States has made concerted efforts through reimbursements and a variety of quality measures to move from a principally reactive system of health care that treats people when they become ill, to a more balanced system of care that additionally aims to prevent and cure disease by keeping people healthy holistically. This shift of emphasizing the prevention and early treatment of disease has not made its way into the discipline of mental health. 

Mental health is one of the largest health challenges in the country. With an estimated $467 billion in lost productivity and medical costs, mental health is a tremendous financial burden on the country – and even more importantly, it represents a great deal of pain and suffering for the millions who suffer. Around half of the U.S. population will experience a major mental health issue during their lifetime, and approximately 20% of the population has a diagnosable mental health condition in any given year.  

Our mental health care system today remains principally a reactive care model, where we wait for people to reach fairly advanced symptoms, and then provide care in the form of medication, therapy, and other services. Can we balance this and add a more proactive upstream prevention and early intervention mental health component? Further, can we de-stigmatize mental health conditions and the way people seek solutions as we move upstream?

Population-based mental health care can be defined as a systematic approach to improving the mental health of populations (not just covered lives) which includes clinical, consumer, community and policy components. Importantly, roughly 75% of people with a mind wellness issue work on their health by themselves (we can call this self-care) without the help of a professional, but, 95% of resources used in self-care have not been scientifically evaluated for effectiveness. This labyrinth of trying to find “what works” for their condition or area of interest places an unnecessary burden on consumers. Not only do they suffer from their original condition, but then have the added frustration of not finding resources that help them accomplish their goals. Often people endure fatigue and helplessness of not knowing what, if anything, will help them. With tens of thousands of mental health resources in the world (apps, podcasts, videos, articles, etc.) how does a user find self-care resources that will work for them?

A team from UC Berkeley, Harvard and Stanford have been working to build an information system platform, called CredibleMind, for all users (a community resident, patient, caregiver, family member, employee, etc.) which provides 3 vital capabilities for anyone with a mind wellness issue:

1. A list of evidence-based approaches for “what works” to ameliorate mental health conditions (that users can implement themselves);
2. a list of high quality and star-rated resources to help users take action (thousands of apps, podcasts, videos, articles, etc.), and
3. links to local resources for users with more severe and/or persistent symptoms who require professional services

The objective of the CredibleMind project is not only to alleviate symptoms of mental health conditions but to help people flourish in their lives. 

For users with a mind wellness issue, we invite you to go to Crediblemind.com and find the best resources to help you on your journey. If you don’t find what you need please let us know. 

For organizations that strive to help their population become healthier and want to promote population-based mental health, please contact us and ask how we can customize our system to help you with your goals. 

Everyone has a right to have the best information made available to help them flourish in their lives.

Deryk Van Brunt, DrPH is co-founder and CEO of CredibleMind. You can contact him at Deryk@crediblemind.com