SALT LAKE CITY—There is a mental health crisis in the U.S. One in five adults have a diagnosable mental health condition each year, according to data from Mental Health America with more than one in four in Utah, ranking it the highest in the nation. 

In an effort to address these mental health concerns, Intermountain Health recently announced a partnership with the Mental Wellbeing Company, CredibleMind, Inc. a self-care platform that covers more than 100 topics related to mental health and resources for all ages.

“America is experiencing a growing mental health crisis, creating an urgent need to address this challenge with creative solutions that scale quickly, consistently and with the highest quality,” said Mason Turner, MD, senior medical director for the Intermountain Health’s Behavioral Health Clinical Program. “This digital tool provides more ways to help people in our communities manage anxiety, sleep better, relieve stress, beat burnout, and more. Ultimately, we want to help people live their healthiest lives possible. With this platform, we are providing free, high-quality resources to our community.”

It’s a one stop shop for evidence-based self-care for all mental health disorders, said Deryk Van Brunt, DrPH, founder and CEO of CredibleMind. “It covers everyday, real life things. Three out of four people want to do it on their own. This gives them the tools to do that.”

People pick a topic such as anxiety, he said. “It might show 17 things you could do on your own to feel better. Three years ago my son was suffering from anxiety. He went through the 17 options and found that music was therapeutic. He plays the guitar and downloaded a sleep app that he uses every night.”

Visitors to the platform can choose a topic and be connected to resources that have been vetted, said Van Brunt. “My son has stopped all medication and therapy.”

The system provides assessments such as not sleeping, anger management, drinking too much, etc., he said. “You answer the questions to see how you are doing. It gives you a score. Most are low or medium risk. With higher risk you’ll probably want a combination of services. CredibleMind and therapy.”

Adults can ask for themself or a parent might ask about a child. “They can respond to their risk level,” said Van Brunt. “Maybe they’re worried about their child’s mild anxiety. They can use this tool to help them decide what to do instead of waiting for three to four months to get an appointment.”

This is just informative, he said. “It’s not an official diagnosis.”

Mental health is an important journey, said Tammer Attallah, executive clinic director for behavior health at Intermountain. “You don’t always need a therapist. This content gives step by step support to provide relief and help you better understand the condition and what to do. It also offers support for those currently in care.”

The beauty about it is that it’s free, said Attallah. “There is no wrong door. This offers ways to connect people. They can use it as part of (mental health) care or it can stand on its own. It’s not designed to diagnose. It offers a direction and may be helpful but it’s not a replacement for treatment.” 

Here are the top three things CredibleMind provides, Van Brunt said.

• A person can come to the platform if they want evidence based help for themselves or someone they care about.
• It triages them to find the right level of support and makes it easy to connect people to clinical services.
• As they move forward it teaches happiness as a tool.

“This can absolutely improve your level of happiness,” said Van Brunt. “We’re creating the first online program to flourish.”

Visit https://intermountainhealth.crediblemind.com/ for more information.