This report presents a fiscal year 2024–2025 evaluation of a Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health initiative to provide Los Angeles County residents with free access to iPrevail, a software app offering mental health education and support. The authors examine residents' awareness of iPrevail, app engagement, user characteristics, and change in mental health symptoms over time and recommend strategies to increase public awareness and uptake.

Evaluation of the iPrevail Initiative to Provide a Free Online Mental Health App to Los Angeles County Residents

Fiscal Year 2024–2025

Graham DiGuiseppi, Elizabeth Roth, Samantha Matthews, Rebecca L. Collins, Nicole K. Eberhart

ResearchPublished Nov 18, 2025

This report presents a second evaluation of a Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health initiative to provide Los Angeles County residents with free access to iPrevail, a software application that provides mental health education and support resources, including chats with trained peer coaches 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The authors describe Los Angeles County residents' awareness of iPrevail based on countywide survey data. Using de-identified app use data from fiscal year (FY) 2024–2025, the authors examine app engagement, user characteristics, and change in mental health symptoms over time. They also provide information pertaining to the app's newest assessments of the impacts of contemporary events on residents' perceived stress and well-being. Building on their FY 2023–2024 iPrevail evaluation, the authors continue to analyze trends in new users by language preference and note any relevant similarities to or differences from the results of the prior year's evaluation.

The report highlights the strengths of the iPrevail initiative, which include making iPrevail freely available to residents of Los Angeles County, offering a chat function with a trained peer coach, and providing additional mental health resources. The authors offer recommendations to build on these strengths and identify areas for further improvement.

Key Findings

  • Four percent of Los Angeles County youth ages 16–25 and nearly 2 percent of adults ages 26 and older were aware of iPrevail and correctly identified it as a mental health app. The most common reason for not using iPrevail was a low perceived need.
  • Despite no increase in advertising, the number of new iPrevail users steadily grew from July 2024 through June 2025, reversing a decline in users from March 2023 through June 2024.
  • The most popular feature of iPrevail gives users the ability to chat with and receive resources from a trained peer coach. Nearly seven in ten iPrevail users who signed up for an account chatted with a coach. Users who opted for the app’s “chat now” feature (without needing an account) participated in nearly 23,000 unique chat sessions with peer coaches.
  • Peer coaches offered users a variety of external resources, the most common of which were coping and mindfulness resources, crisis hotlines, and community resources. The types of resources provided did not appear to vary by user demographics.
  • Thirteen percent of iPrevail users completed a mental health assessment. Among these, 88 percent had moderate or severe mental health symptoms. These symptoms did not change over time and were not associated with engagement in different app activities.
  • Although iPrevail attracted a diverse user base, users ages 60 and older, male users, veterans, and users who most often speak a language other than English or Spanish at home engaged less with iPrevail’s features than did other users.

Recommendations

  • Conduct additional user experience research and usability testing.
  • Continue to prioritize the chat feature to connect Los Angeles County residents to a trained peer coach who can offer relevant mental health resources.
  • Implement marketing strategies and messaging to broaden public awareness and increase uptake of iPrevail.
  • Implement minor changes within the app that facilitate data analysis.
  • Continue to prioritize assessments that capture the individual-level impact of contemporary events that may affect Los Angeles County residents' perceived stress and well-being, and use assessment results to provide appropriate resources online and in the community.

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: California Mental Health Services Authority
  • Publisher: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2025
  • Pages: 33
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA4423-1
  • Document Number: RR-A4423-1

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

DiGuiseppi, Graham, Elizabeth Roth, Samantha Matthews, Rebecca L. Collins, and Nicole K. Eberhart, Evaluation of the iPrevail Initiative to Provide a Free Online Mental Health App to Los Angeles County Residents: Fiscal Year 2024–2025. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4423-1.html.
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This evaluation was sponsored by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), via the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) and conducted by the Population Health Program of RAND Health.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.