In 2024, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) continued a social marketing campaign rolled out in 2023 as part of prevention of and early intervention for mental health issues. This report presents a complete picture of the Los Angeles County residents reached by LACDMH's Take Action for Mental Health social marketing campaign across the county population and an evaluation of the campaign's potential impact in the county.

Evaluation of Los Angeles County's 2024 Take Action for Mental Health Social Marketing Campaign

Rebecca L. Collins, Graham DiGuiseppi, Nicole K. Eberhart, Elizabeth Roth, Samantha Matthews

ResearchPublished Dec 27, 2024

Studies show that about one in five U.S. adults lives with a mental health challenge, and the rate is more than one in three among young adults 18 to 25 years old. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) has conducted social marketing campaigns to promote mental health awareness and resources for several years, and these campaigns appear to be effective in shifting stigmatizing attitudes related to mental health and promoting awareness and use of mental health services. This report presents a complete picture of the Los Angeles County residents reached by LACDMH's Take Action for Mental Health social marketing campaign across the county population. The campaign was part of LACDMH's mission goals for prevention of and early intervention for mental health issues. Take Action for Mental Health involved community events and advertising of community and mental health resources, with an emphasis on promoting community connectedness. In this 2024 campaign, surveys were conducted online and at specific events to capture perceptions and immediate responses to these events. The events attracted neighborhood residents and were well received. The overall campaign reached one in four Los Angeles County adults and more than one in three youth. Among youth, the campaign was particularly likely to reach those experiencing recent psychological distress. Among adults, the campaign reach was greater among those with lower levels of education and income. Overall, the campaign was highly effective at increasing awareness of mental health resources but fell short of other key goals among youth audiences.

Key Findings

The Take Action for Mental Health campaign reached a substantial proportion of Los Angeles County residents: approximately one in four adults and 38 percent of youth, or more than 2.2 million county residents

  • The 2024 reach is slightly greater than that obtained in 2023 among adults (one in five) and substantially greater than the 2023 reach (25 percent) among youth.
  • Among youth, the campaign was particularly likely to reach those experiencing recent psychological distress; 62 percent of youth with past-month serious distress reported exposure to Take Action for Mental Health.
  • The campaign saw particularly strong reach in diverse communities, including among Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, lower-education, and lower-income adults.

Perceptions of the campaign events were overwhelmingly positive

  • Ninety-six percent said the events made them feel more connected to their communities, more supportive of those experiencing mental health challenges (an indicator of stigma reduction), and more supported themselves (an indicator of increased well-being).

The campaign appeared to have an impact on targeted outcomes, particularly among adults

  • Residents exposed to the campaign were more likely to report that they knew about mental health resources provided by LACDMH and those available in their communities.
  • Adults exposed to the campaign felt significantly more connected to their communities than unexposed peers. This was not true of county youth exposed to Take Action for Mental Health.
  • Adults exposed to the campaign also reported greater mobilization around mental health. This was not true of county youth who were exposed to the campaign.

Recommendations

  • The California Mental Health Services Authority and Los Angeles County should consider expanding outreach methods that more efficiently reach larger numbers of individuals, such as mass media buys and increased social media outreach.
  • Future campaigns should continue to partner with trusted community-based organizations that were effective partners for the 2024 campaign. The events reached very small numbers of residents, particularly adults, but they were highly engaging and rated as effective by attendees in regard to all campaign goals.
  • Partnerships with other organizations, such as sports teams and entertainment groups, could be reduced to focus on those that capture the biggest unique audiences (e.g., the Los Angeles Dodgers, Univision television network). Consider ending partnerships that are not adding unique reach (e.g., Los Angeles Sparks basketball) and using those funds to enhance messaging used by partners with a big reach.
  • Overall, the campaign was highly effective at increasing awareness of mental health resources but fell short of other key goals among youth audiences. Future efforts should focus on using messaging to create a sense of community among youth and to mobilize them. It is likely that youth need to receive different messages than adults do to achieve changes in these areas.

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: California Mental Health Services Authority
  • Publisher: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2024
  • Pages: 36
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA3569-2
  • Document Number: RR-A3569-2

Citation

RAND Style Manual

Collins, Rebecca L., Graham DiGuiseppi, Nicole K. Eberhart, Elizabeth Roth, and Samantha Matthews, Evaluation of Los Angeles County's 2024 Take Action for Mental Health Social Marketing Campaign, RAND Corporation, RR-A3569-2, 2024. As of May 1, 2025: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3569-2.html

Chicago Manual of Style

Collins, Rebecca L., Graham DiGuiseppi, Nicole K. Eberhart, Elizabeth Roth, and Samantha Matthews, Evaluation of Los Angeles County's 2024 Take Action for Mental Health Social Marketing Campaign. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3569-2.html.
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This research was funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), via the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) and carried out within the Access and Delivery Program in RAND Health Care.

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