Final Evaluation of Help@Hand Shows Promising Outcomes, Learnings
Key staff: Brittany Ganguly, Senior Program Manager
A final evaluation report of the Help@Hand initiative of cities and counties, produced by evaluators at UC Irvine, is now available. The report synthesizes findings across all participating cities/counties for the full duration of the project.
Funded by the Mental Health Services Act, Help@Hand was a cross-county partnership demonstrating how technology can be incorporated into the behavioral health system. From 2017 through 2024, 14 county and city mental health plans participated in implementing this Mental Health Services Act Innovation project, with CalMHSA as the collaborative’s administrator. Key goals included:
- Detect and acknowledge mental health symptoms sooner
- Reduce stigma associated with mental illness by promoting mental wellness
- Increase access to the appropriate level of support and care
- Increase purpose, belonging and social connectedness of individuals served
- Analyze and collect data to improve mental health needs assessment and service delivery
Some key findings from the report include:
- Two counties used Help@Hand funds to develop custom technologies – Wellscreen Monterey in Monterey County and TakemyHand in Riverside County.
- 13 counties and cities investigated 53 different technologies, with features ranging from peer chat to chatbot, meditation, sleep guidance and digital phenotyping.
- Seven counties conducted pilot implementations of eight distinct technologies.
- 10 counties fully implemented nine different technologies.
- Nine counties and cities hosted digital literacy trainings.
- Three counties launched mental health awareness initiatives and six published app guides or brochures to educate on mental health technologies.
The final report also summarizes activities undertaken during the project, as well as recommendations and learnings, and provides spotlights of specific projects and outcomes. For more information about Help@Hand, visit www.helpathandca.org.
March 3, 2025