“Raise your hand if you do not have a smartphone.”

In a room full of students and faculty, not one person raised their hand.

Dr. Sohil Sud posed this question to the audience at the “Prioritizing Mental Health Fitness” panel March 12. Sud, the director of Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative at the California Health and Human Services Agency, delivered opening remarks at the event, a collaboration between the Child Mind Institute and CYBHI in promoting the launch of Mirror – a journaling app meant to improve mental health.

“If we start this mental health journey in the doctor’s office, we’re too late,” Sud said on the panel. “We have to meet you where you live your lives.”

The panel, led by psychiatry professor Jocelyn Meza, included UCLA student-athletes Sophia Hartwell, Emma Malabuyo and Daniella Ramirez.

Ramirez, a fourth-year art student and artistic swimmer for Team USA, said journaling helps her decompress and better manage her time. She added that she believes Mirror is a tool that can be beneficial for all UCLA students.

“I think it’s so important to make sure that other people around you and in your community are doing well,” Ramirez said. “This is my community at the moment.”

Hartwell, a track-and-field athlete at UCLA, said she has faced challenges with her own mental health, adding that she uses the guided journaling prompts on Mirror to help her organize her goals for the day.

Hartwell said she hopes to make prioritizing mental health less of a taboo topic.

“As I’ve gotten to know my teammates and have gotten well-versed in the athlete world, I realized that everyone’s struggling with mental health,” Hartwell said. “Why not talk about it more? Why is this so taboo?”

In a recorded video played at the event, Kim Johnson, the secretary of CalHHS, said the partnership between the CYBHI and CMI is a part of a statewide initiative taken by Gov. Gavin Newsom to improve youth mental health.

Billions of dollars have been allocated to over 1,300 organizations through the initiative, with the focus being on advancing behavioral health support, Sud said.

Julia Trabulsi, the director of product management for Mirror, said the platform is unique because its development was guided with insight from many clinical professionals. She added that the app’s algorithm can direct people to crisis lines when necessary.

Sud said he hopes people feel better equipped to support themselves after listening to the panel.

“Everybody is experiencing it (mental health issues),” Hartwell said. “It just takes one person to speak up and make it known that, ‘Hey, I’m struggling too. Let’s talk about it. Let’s make this right.’”