Bell Seal Application Process

Mental Health America will start accepting applications for 2025 Bell Seal for Workplace Mental Health certification on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. Please submit an interest form to receive updates and get started.

Determine if you’re eligible

Employers of all sizes and industries are welcome and encouraged to apply for the Bell Seal certification. Recipients represent 19 industries – from health care to financial services to manufacturing – and organizational sizes, from three to more than 1.5 million workers, in 39 states. Take this quick survey to see if your workplace qualifies.

An employer engaged in any effort – through internal policies and practices, legislation, regulation, litigation, or other advocacy – that weakens the rights of employees living with mental health or substance use conditions or discriminates against persons with mental health or substance use conditions is ineligible to apply for the Bell Seal certification.

Kickstart your application

MHA strives to provide a simple and clear application process. Follow these steps to apply:

1. Submit an interest form and receive an email with the link to the online application.
2. Prepare and submit your application online before the deadline.
3. Pay the application fee at the time of submission.
4. Receive your results by email within 30 business days.

Take these optional steps to help prepare before you apply:

• Take this quick survey to determine your organization’s eligibility and potential recognition level.
• Review the 2025 application questions to know what to expect on the application.
• Learn how other employers achieved certification in the 2024 outcomes publication.

Apply by Friday, April 4

Apply by end-of-day April 4, 2025, to be considered for the 2025 Bell Seal application cycle. Responses may need to be sourced from multiple departments or teams, including human resources, benefits, and employee resource or affinity groups, and is typically the most time-intensive part of the application process. The online application takes approximately one to two hours to complete.

Low cost and big impact

As a non-profit organization, the Bell Seal application fee helps cover the cost of manually processing each application, creating a custom results report, and developing additional resources. The fee ranges depending on the organization’s industry and full-time equivalent (FTE) count and is due at the time of submission by credit card or check payment.

• 1 – 50 FTEs
  • MHA Affiliate: Free
  • Public or Non-Profit: $150
  • Private: $200
• 51 – 1,000 FTEs
  • MHA Affiliate: Free
  • Public or Non-Profit: $250
  • Private: $300
• 1,001 – 5,000 FTEs
  • MHA Affiliate: Free
  • Public or Non-Profit: $350
  • Private: $400
• 5,001+ FTEs
  • MHA Affiliate: Free
  • Public or Non-Profit: $450
  • Private: $500

The application fee is non-refundable and is not dependent on the applicant meeting qualifications for Bell Seal certification. Applying does not guarantee certification or recognition. We highly encourage you to take this pre-survey to determine your eligibility before applying. The preliminary results from the pre-survey are subject to change when you complete the full application.

If certified, applicants can opt-in to have one official Bell Seal certificate mailed to them. The mailed certificate is subject to an additional $5.00 shipping and handling charge and is refundable if the applicant is not certified.

Confidential and secure

Application responses will be kept confidential and secure on MHA’s servers and used only for the Bell Seal program. MHA may use aggregated information in educational or promotional materials, including the annual outcomes publication.

Apply with confidence

MHA is committed to supporting your organization’s workplace mental health journey. If your workplace does not qualify or aspires to improve its score, MHA and its partners offer free resources and fee-based services to assist your workplace in improving its score for the next application cycle. Visit MHA’s Workplace Wellness Resource Center for free resources, or email us at workplace@mhanational.org to discuss direct services for workplace wellness leaders.

Curious if your workplace qualifies? Take a quick survey.

Receive your score

All applicants will receive their results by email within 30 business days of submission. The results include which recognition level—Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum—your workplace qualifies for, how it scored in each section—Workplace Culture, Benefits, Compliance, and Wellness—and how it compares to other employers and recipients. Applicants also receive a recipient checklist with the next steps and additional resources.

Celebrate your certification

If certified, your workplace will receive a promotion toolkit to announce its certification to employees, clients, customers, and the communities it serves. In addition, recipients, at their discretion, receive recognition on the Bell Seal website and in the annual outcomes publication. Recipients can decline participation in promotional activities or publications.

Build momentum with recertification

Bell Seal recipients will be notified by email to renew their certification each January.

Questions?

MHA is here to assist applicants throughout the process. If you have any questions about the Bell Seal or how to apply, please don’t hesitate to email us at workplace@mhanational.org. We’re happy to help.