It’s no secret that mental health has been deemed a public health crisis in the U.S. since before the pandemic, which exacerbated the problem. And earlier this year the U.S. Surgeon General stated that “Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health.” 

To help address the issue — specifically among young people — Stagwell’s Code and Theory has developed a mental health app for California healthcare provider Sutter Health called Scout. The release is timed to World Mental Health Day (Oct. 10). 

The national platform is free and designed to help teens and young adults ages 13-22 manage their everyday mental health.   

According to the agency, the platform promotes self-reflection, expression and education. It includes daily mental health check-ins, feelings tracking and trend evaluation, personalized educational tools, and clinically approved support resources.  

After completing a wellness check-in, users are guided through positivity and mindfulness exercises and gain badges through Scout’s reward system.  

A suicide and crisis hotline is also part of the offering along with one-on-one support provided in partnership with peers.net.  

The agency created 300 illustrations in the app. It’s available in mobile and web versions in both English and Spanish languages. 

At a time when many young people seek health advice from TikTok, “we were thrilled to reimagine clinical content with Sutter Health to create an engaging, personalized, education and wellness tool to promote mental health,” said Stephen Clements, chief creative officer at Code and Theory. 

In part, the content on the app is designed to build resilience to life’s everyday pressures. Tools and resources have been compiled to help develop skills to cope with difficult emotions, stressors and relationships. There’s also content about substances and their potential impact.  

Other content includes understanding depression and anxiety, communication and conflict, triggers and de-escalations, sleep, nutrition, meditation and more. 

Scout teamed with Emergence Creative to develop the app.