Does ‘R U OK? Day’ actually improve people’s mental health?

Maskot/Getty Images Every September, Australians are encouraged to ask someone a simple question: “Are you OK?” R U OK? Day is Australia’s most recognisable mental health campaign, and a familiar part of workplace morning teas, school assemblies and social media feeds.

But does it actually improve mental health? Our new study suggests it does.

We found a small but measurable improvement in mental wellbeing after R U OK? Day.

The gain was largest among men aged 25–49.

But we found no increase in visits to a GP for a mental health treatment plan, or in prescriptions filled for mental health-related medicines.

Together, these findings show both the value and the limits of public awareness campaigns.

What we studied and how R U OK? Day is held annually on the second Thursday of September.

The campaign asks Australians to follow four steps: ask someone whether they’re OK listen with an open mind encourage them to take action if needed check in with them over the next couple of weeks.

We used nine years of data drawn from across the Australian population, from 2011 to 2019, to test whether the campaign changed two main outcomes.

First, we used responses from the long-running Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, which happens to conduct annual interviews in the months around R U OK? Day.

Participants answered nine questions about how they had felt during the previous four weeks.

These included how often they had felt happy, nervous, full of life, or so down that nothing could cheer them up.

We combined their answers into an overall measure of mental wellbeing.

Second, we used national health records from Medicare to count the daily number of mental health treatment plans GPs prepared and prescriptions filled for psychiatric medicines.