Well Beings is a multiplatform, multi-year campaign from public media to address the critical health needs in America through original broadcast and digital content, engagement campaigns, and impactful local events. Well Beings was created by WETA Washington, D.C., the flagship public media station in the nation’s capital, and brings together partners from across the country, including youth with experience of mental health challenges, families, caregivers, educators, medical and mental health professionals, social service agencies, private foundations, filmmakers, corporations and media sponsors, to create awareness and resources for better health and well-being. The public can join the conversation by using #WellBeings or following @WellBeingsOrg on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube or Threads.
- Press & Media
The latest media coverage, press release archive, project information, and helpful links to downloadable press resources.
- Get Involved
Support Well Beings and help spread the word! Easy ways to participate, keep up to date with Well Beings news, and easily shareable social media videos and graphics. - Awards & Recognition
Since launching in 2020, Well Beings has received international and national awards for outstanding content and platform development.
About the Youth Mental Health Project
The Well Beings campaign debuts with the Youth Mental Health Project, which will include a major public television film – Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness – executive produced by Ken Burns, as well as content from PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, American Public Media, and more. The project also includes a 34-event Well Beings Tour in partnership with public media stations across the county (virtual and/or in-person based on public health conditions). Each tour event will consist of a resource fair and information from local community organizations, art performances, and panel discussions with local youth and subject matter experts.
Learn more about:
The Youth Mental Health Project is a major public media multi-platform project to address mental health conditions. As mental health concerns often first present themselves in youth, this project primarily centers the needs of this cohort. With public media’s reach through television, radio and digital content, and its community-based network for public engagement — the Youth Mental Health Project is raising awareness about mental health challenges, addressing the stigmatization that often prevents people from seeking care, focusing on the lived experiences of individuals dealing with mental health conditions, and fostering and convening ways for communities to support each other and encourage compassion.
The Well Beings National Tour
The Well Beings campaign includes a nationwide Well Beings Tour hosted in partnership with local public media stations to present impactful experiences that connect audiences with mental health resources in the local community, strengthen community connections, and destigmatize mental health challenges. The Tour features moderated public discussions that share information and volunteer opportunities from local community and national organizations. The Tour is fostering new conversations about mental health through these local events — live or virtual, based on local public health conditions.
Documentary Content
Longtime WETA production partner Ken Burns is the executive producer of a major new public television documentary, Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness. The film, which premiered in 2022, explores how young people are addressing their mental health needs and examines the impact of mental health stigma and stress on today’s youth. Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers are the co-directors, Julie Coffman is the producer, and David Blistein is the writer.
Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness has received several awards and accolades, including:
- Mental Health America Media Award: In 2022, the film was recognized for its efforts to educate, inform, and reduce stigma around mental illness and addiction.
- Digital Health Awards: In 2023, the film won a Gold Award in the Media / Publishing division.
- Telly Awards: In 2023, the film won a Bronze Award in the Television General-Fitness, Health category.
- Research!America’s ISADORE ROSENFELD AWARD FOR IMPACT ON PUBLIC OPINION: The film was recognized for its impact on public opinion.
A multi-part digital series, Out of the Dark, shares the stories of people whose lives have been touched and changed by mental health challenges, to help destigmatize mental health conditions. The WETA digital documentary, Our Turn to Talk, a character-driven verité film that premiered in 2022, also explores themes of youth mental health, substance abuse and mental illness stigma as high school students share their stories.
Learn more about upcoming Well Beings films & series.
About Remote Chance: Health Care in Rural America
Remote Chance: Health Care in Rural America is a new public media documentary and digital series, accompanied by a national outreach, engagement, education, and social media campaign. It includes a 60-minute film slated for broadcast and streaming on more than 330 PBS stations nationwide in 2025 (rebroadcast for 3 years), and an additional 60-minutes of original, short-form digital content on WellBeings.org, public media’s online platform to address the critical healthcare needs of Americans.
The documentary and digital series will be produced and directed by Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker. Over approximately 18 months of Production, the film will capture the voices of a geographically, ethnically, and economically diverse selection of rural residents and health care providers. Through their lived experiences and deeply moving personal narratives, the project will explore how social determinants of health like culture, the local economy, lack of infrastructure, and even the weather affect health outcomes across rural America. It will shine a light on vast areas of the US where access to even the most basic health care is a profound challenge, where people are feeling disregarded, ignored, and forgotten. The film will also reflect on how the Covid pandemic exacerbated these issues and brought them into sharper focus.
About The Caregiving Project
Caregiving is a four-part prime-time documentary series that will frame the realities of day-to-day caregiving. In the U.S., more than 53 million family caregivers are unpaid, providing 34 billion hours of care annually, amounting to an estimated $67 billion in personal lost earnings. As caregiving in America faces the twin pressures of an aging baby boomer generation and rising life expectancy, the United States’ long-term care system threatens to tip into crisis. The film will personalize this urgent national issue through stories from caregivers and interviews with experts as they fight to give caregivers the security and support they provide for so many others. The project also includes a robust national engagement campaign. Caregiving is currently in development and sponsored by Care.com.