PR for mental-health and wellbeing apps

PR for mental-health and wellbeing apps works when it is evidence-led, precise about what the app does, and careful with a vulnerable audience. Journalists are wary of apps that overpromise, so the brands that earn serious coverage lead with clinical credibility, honest claims and visible respect for users’ data. This guide covers the guidelines, regulation and story angles that make that possible.

Why is mental-health app coverage so hard to win?

Three things work against you. First, trust: health and technology editors have seen plenty of apps launch with big claims and little proof, so a pitch that leads with “transform your mental health” is likely to be ignored. Second, evidence gaps: many wellbeing apps have engagement data but no published outcomes, and journalists increasingly ask what the evidence actually shows. Third, sensitivity: a careless phrase, a poorly chosen case study or an exploitative awareness-day hook can harm readers and damage the brand far more than no coverage at all.

The upside is that brands which handle these issues well stand out quickly. A founder who can explain the evidence plainly, a clinician who can comment responsibly, and a data story built on consented, anonymised insight give journalists exactly what they need for a careful piece.

Which reporting guidelines should you follow?

Journalists covering mental health work to established guidance, and your materials should meet the same standard. If your press release or spokesperson breaks these guidelines, a responsible editor will either rewrite your contribution or drop it.

• Suicide. Samaritans’ media guidelines for reporting suicide warn that explicitly describing a method and sensational or excessive reporting can lead to imitational behaviour, while stories of people coming through a crisis can encourage help-seeking. They also recommend including support information such as helpline numbers. In the UK, clause 5 of the IPSO Editors’ Code also requires care to avoid excessive detail of the method used.
• Language. Mind’s Media Advisory Service advises person-first language (a person experiencing depression, not “a depressive”) and avoiding stigmatising terms such as “psycho”, “suffering” or “committed suicide”. It also recommends clear content warnings.
• Signposting. Any material that touches on crisis, self-harm or suicide should point readers to professional help, and your app’s own crisis pathway should be clear before you talk to press.

Build these into your press office: a short style sheet for spokespeople, a review step for anything touching suicide or self-harm, and a standard support line at the foot of relevant releases.

What evidence and claims rules apply to mental-health apps?

This is the area where wellbeing apps most often get into trouble, because the line between “wellbeing” and “medical” depends on what you say the product is for. The summary below is a working guide, not legal advice.

UK: is your app a medical device?

In February 2025 the MHRA, working with NICE, published guidance on digital mental health technologies. The qualification and classification guidance turns on intended purpose: whether a product is meant to support wellbeing or to aid treatment of a mental health condition. If it has a medical purpose and its functionality is considered complex, it needs to be regulated as software as a medical device. The practical lesson for PR is that your press materials help define your intended purpose. An app positioned for general wellbeing should not be pitched as treating anxiety or depression.

UK: what does good evidence look like?

The NICE Evidence Standards Framework for digital health technologies sets out the evidence expected for different types of product. Following its 2022 update, tier B covers technologies that help people manage their own health, such as mood diaries and programmes for better sleep, while tier C covers technologies that treat or diagnose conditions and are likely to be regulated medical devices. Knowing which tier you sit in helps you describe your evidence accurately. Independent assessments, such as those from ORCHA, which reviews digital health products against safety, privacy and quality standards, can also give journalists a useful third-party reference point.

US: general wellness or device?

The FDA’s general wellness policy for low risk devices covers products intended for maintaining or encouraging a healthy lifestyle and unrelated to the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, prevention or treatment of a disease or condition. Claims about treating a named condition take you outside that policy. Separately, the FTC expects competent and reliable scientific evidence for health benefit claims, so “clinically proven” needs the clinical data to match.

For more detail across markets, see our guide to health claims compliance in PR.

Why is data privacy a story risk?

For mental-health apps, a privacy failure is not just a compliance problem: it is a headline. In 2023 the FTC finalised an order against BetterHelp requiring $7.8 million for consumer refunds, after finding it had shared consumers’ health questionnaire information, email and IP addresses with platforms including Facebook and Snapchat for advertising, despite promising to keep health data private. The order banned it from sharing health data for advertising.

In the UK, the ICO’s special category data guidance confirms that data concerning health needs both an Article 6 lawful basis and a separate Article 9 condition, and that a data protection impact assessment is more likely to be needed. Before any PR push, check three things: what your tracking pixels share, whether your privacy policy matches reality, and whether any data story you plan to release has a clear consent basis. Journalists and researchers do look.

Which story angles work for mental-health apps?

• Anonymised, consented usage data. Aggregate trends (when people seek support, which tools they use around exams or the festive period) make strong data stories, provided users consented and individuals cannot be identified. Explain your method plainly.
• Clinician experts. Psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists on your advisory board can offer measured commentary on reactive news, which is often more valuable than product coverage. See our guide to becoming a media expert as a clinician.
• Awareness moments, used carefully. World Mental Health Day falls on 10 October each year, and the Mental Health Foundation’s Mental Health Awareness Week runs in May in the UK. Bring something genuinely useful (data, practical advice, an expert) rather than a promotional hook.
• Workplace wellbeing. Business and HR titles cover employee mental health, and a B2B app can contribute evidence and practical guidance.
• Human stories, with consent and care. Users who want to share their experience should be supported, briefed and able to withdraw, and their stories should not imply the app replaced professional care.

Breathing-trainer brand Omhale shows how expert-led healthtech PR can move quickly: its registered respiratory therapist was quoted in Men’s Journal (syndicated to Yahoo Health), Peloton’s blog and SingleCare, with seven placements in about six weeks. Our healthtech PR work for app and device brands follows the same expert-first approach.

What should mental-health apps avoid?

• Implying the app replaces therapy, medication or crisis services.
• Treatment claims for named conditions without the regulatory status and evidence to support them.
• Engagement metrics presented as clinical outcomes (an in-app satisfaction poll is not an outcome study).
• Sensational language, method detail or stock imagery that reinforces stigma.
• Exploiting tragedies or news events involving suicide to promote the product.
• Releasing data stories without a clear consent and anonymisation basis.

How should you measure success?

Look beyond volume. Track the quality and relevance of titles, whether your clinicians are quoted accurately, referral traffic, branded search and links from authoritative health sites. Our guide to measuring PR for health brands explains how to report on each. If you work in women’s health, the same principles apply to femtech PR.