--- title: The Campaign to Make Mental Health a Priority description: Michelle Obama and others have backed the new initiative canonical: https://time.com/3733111/the-campaign-to-make-mental-health-a-priority/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-05T11:08:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:55:45.749Z article:section: Health og:title: The Campaign to Make Mental Health a Priority og:description: Michelle Obama and others have backed the new initiative og:url: https://time.com/3733111/the-campaign-to-make-mental-health-a-priority/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Campaign to Make Mental Health a Priority twitter:description: Michelle Obama and others have backed the new initiative twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Campaign to Make Mental Health a Priority > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 5, 2015 11:08 AM UTC  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Mar 5, 2015 11:08 AM UTC It’s easy to spot signs of physical pain: a gash, a rash, a dramatic clutch at the chest. Much murkier is emotional distress, which can be easily masked and may feel taboo to talk about, no matter how close you are to someone. “We don’t tend to have conversations about mental well-being,” says Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen, a clinical psychologist and founder of a new national campaign, Change Direction, that launched on March 4\. It’s an effort–backed by various business leaders, agencies and the First Lady–to bring into the open discussions about mental health and to teach people the common ways mental distress tends to show up. Roughly 19% of adults experience a diagnosable mental-health issue, federal data shows, and countless more go through a tough time without talking about it. Simply asking someone “How are you–really?” will yield more than a rote answer, says Van Dahlen. “It’s an entrée into what could lead to somebody getting help they’re afraid to ask for,” she adds. That help could be meditation or medication, talk therapy or just talking it out. The most important thing, says Van Dahlen, is that people know it’s O.K. to not always be O.K. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3733111/the-campaign-to-make-mental-health-a-priority/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3733111/the-campaign-to-make-mental-health-a-priority/"},"headline":"The Campaign to Make Mental Health a Priority","datePublished":"2015-03-05T11:08:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:55:45.749Z","description":"Michelle Obama and others have backed the new initiative","url":"https://time.com/3733111/the-campaign-to-make-mental-health-a-priority/","keywords":["Mental Health"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3733111/the-campaign-to-make-mental-health-a-priority/","name":"The Campaign to Make Mental Health a Priority"}}]}] ```