In 1990, Doug Jacobs, MD, a psychiatrist and educator, had the idea to begin screening for depression, much like his colleagues in the medical field were screening for physical diseases like cancer and diabetes.

He gathered a team to create the first depression screening tool and then spearheaded National Depression Screening Day® in 1990, the first large-scale public campaign of mental health education and screening. Since then, thousands of organizations worldwide including hospitals, mental health centers, social service agencies, government agencies, military installations, primary care clinics, colleges, secondary schools, corporations, and HMOs have utilized our educational and screening programs.

Dr. Jacobs founded MindWise Innovations (formerly Screening for Mental Health) in 1991. In May of 2018, MindWise Innovations officially merged with Riverside Community Care, a behavioral healthcare and human services organization based in eastern Massachusetts. Riverside’s deep roots in community behavioral healthcare combined with MindWise’s innovative use of technology to educate and connect people to services has created a powerfully effective and comprehensive new approach to the assessment and treatment of those with mental illness.