Walgreens wants to make treating mental illness as common as buying cold medicine

Walgreens wants to address an issue that 20% of its customers face: Mental illness.

On Tuesday, the national drugstore chain announced new initiatives, including a partnership with the nonprofit organization Mental Health America, to help customers identify and treat mental health conditions. MHA has been providing these tools for about three years on its own site, but hopes to reach a wider audience by working with Walgreens.

Resources such as online screening for depression and anxiety, facilitation of treatment and follow-up notifications to ensure patients adhere to their prescribed medications are now available for free. An additional service that provides digital and telephone consultations with licensed therapists and psychiatrists is available for about $60 for patients without health insurance.

Brief online screenings have about an 80% accuracy rate in identifying mental health conditions compared with in-person clinician services, says IHPI member Daniel Eisenberg. The tests have been commonly used when surveying college students and workplaces, but have been less common in the general population, Eisenberg says.