One Medical Teams Up with Bieber's Songwriter to Highlight Mental Health Issues

Nearly one in five adults in the U.S. lives with a mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

To raise awareness for this important issue, One Medical teamed up with iHeartMedia and its new iHeartRadio Original/Jingle Punks production “Bear and a Banjo” musical podcast with Dennis Quaid, to release a song entitled “Better Days.” The song was created by four-time Grammy winner Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd (Justin Bieber’s main songwriting collaborator) and “Jingle Jared” Gutstadt, the musicians behind the feature songs for Bear and a Banjo. You can listen to the song below:

The pair wrote the lyrics for the song using over 200 anonymous internet posts about mental health, sourced predominantly from Reddit. The creators of the song hope that it reminds people facing mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, that they are not alone.

“Seeing that other people have and share thoughts that possibly I have, you have, other people out there who are going to enjoy the song have... it makes you feel less alone.” said Jared Gutstadt, President and CCO of Jingle Punks.

The song was created in partnership with One Medical, a primary care practice reinventing the health care experience to meet the needs of patients’ real lives. One Medical is committed to treating the whole person, inclusive of both physical and mental health. Research shows that less than 5 percent of people are screened for depression in the primary care process, and One Medical has implemented an automated mental health screening system with the goal of bringing this number to 100 percent of adult patients. 

“Mental health issues affect nearly half of our patients,” said Doug Sweeny, One Medical Chief Marketing Officer. “Our hope is that this song will encourage people to talk about how they’re feeling, whether that’s with a doctor, practitioner, other mental health professional or a loved one.”

The song’s debut will coincide with the launch of the Bear and a Banjo project—an album and an accompanying podcast, narrated by Dennis Quaid. The project features songs written by Jingle Jared and Poo Bear as well as lyric contributions from legendary songwriter, Bob Dylan, produced by T Bone Burnett. “Better Days” will be available on iHeartRadio and all other streaming platforms on October 3, 2019. 

A 'making of' video was also released for the song, which you can check out below: