Nearly half of California’s youth are struggling with their mental health and well-being.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of childhood and adolescent anxiety and depression rose drastically. School-based therapists reported long waiting lists and increased fighting and behavioral issues. 

In 2021, the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative established a multi-year, multi-department investment seeking to reimagine the systems that support behavioral health for all California's children, youth, and their families. One solution was to establish Certified Wellness Coaches (CWCs) in educational and after school environments statewide.  

To support this effort, the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) sought to produce a marketing campaign to:

• Increase visibility and awareness of the new CWCs
• Recruit linguistically and culturally diverse candidates to the CWC workforce

NORC used pulse surveys to fuel message development and refinement.

In partnership with Wondros, NORC used quick-turnaround research methods to understand which emotional appeals might motivate someone to become a wellness coach as well as the unique aspects of the certified wellness coach role and to examine the user experience of applicants. 

Next, we will conduct in-depth interviews to capture the campaign's potential effects and to develop the evaluation instrument. And, by 2025, we will capture exposure to the campaign and outcome measures of that exposure by surveying professional audiences and conducting a time-series analysis of pulse survey responses. 

We will also conduct an evaluation survey to identify how well respondents recognize and recall campaign elements. Further, we will examine whether the campaign influenced audience behavior, public perceptions of the CWC role, and stigma toward mental health issues.