As it is Mental Health Awareness month, Walgreens has announced that it is expanding its efforts to provide more access to mental health resources for youth in partnership with Mental Health America (MHA) on its Back-to-School campaign. Walgreens aims to provide newer, improved resources such as screening tools and educational materials for schools around the country by August of this year. The Back-to-School campaign will include material for not just school administration and teachers but also for students, parents, and caregivers. The resources aim at educating teachers and administrators on crisis and non-crisis situations and better recognize warning signs and symptoms. Walgreens also plans to reach out to 800 schools nationwide to educate and empower the youth with insights and resources on problems faced by teenagers and young adults. Providing free, community-based resources for the youth to reach out to is their priority. This initiative is taken by Walgreens due to the growing issue of school violence and high rates of mental illness in adolescents.
Walgreens has always been in favour of providing accessible mental health resources and last year, they developed the first ever Mental Health toolkit for businesses in partnership with Mental Health America. Walgreens also launched their Be Well Connected mental health and wellbeing program last year, which was developed to provide holistic health resources for their employees and their families. This program is constantly being expanded and currently includes a variety of free services and resources which are available through the company’s employee assistance program.
Walgreens has also been an advocate for improving mental health equity and access for a while. In 2019, they spearheaded a mental health first-aid training program for team members within Human Resources department and also provided a specialised training program for all Walgreens pharmacists. These pharmacists are now playing an important role in improving health equity by supporting and guiding patients through new medication therapies and ensuring they adhere to their medications and do not have any side effects.
Walgreens is on a crusade to improve mental health care for its customers with the help of Mental Health America. They have aided customers in finding free community-based screenings, therapists, and other necessary resources for various mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Other drugstore chains such as CVS Health have followed Walgreens’ lead and are pushing beyond a pharmacy’s traditional role of dispensing medications and managing prescriptions to provide more holistic healthcare services. I believe it’s a great outlook for a company on the corporate social responsibility part, and will help generate a positive response from consumers and embed them further in their culture.
References:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/workplace-classroom-walgreens-expands-commitment-130000330.html
One reply on “From the Workplace to the Classroom, Walgreens Expands Commitment to Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing”
I hope this helps a lot of people! It is so incredibly expensive to get proper help, even with insurance.