Brands & Charities Unite to Get Britain Talking About Mental Health

Several brands across multiple industries are uniting with charities to get Britain talking about their mental health.

Every year, World Mental Health Day is officially recognised by The World Health Organisation on the 10th of October.

This year’s theme has been set by the World Federation for Mental Health and revolves around suicide prevention.

Over the last decade, much of the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness has disappeared thanks in parts to dedicated mental health charities and better public awareness surrounding the management of our mental health on day-by-day basis.

But with the evidence that approximately one in four people within the UK will still experience a mental health problem during their lifetime, well-known brands and charities have been partnering up in a bid to get Britain talking more about the subject.

Mental Health – The Facts

Now in its 70th year, the Mental Health Foundation has been working to provide the public with extensive resources, support and partnerships with the end vision of ensuring that everyone is able to live with good mental health.

Whilst they are working to ensure people thrive through understanding, protecting and effectively sustaining their mental health and can address any ongoing mental health issues, there are statistics to show that there is still more that may need to be done.

A few key facts given by the Mental Health Foundation about mental health include:

• Nearly half of adults (43.4%) believe they have had a diagnosable mental health condition at some point in their life.

• Only 13% of Britons say that they are living with high levels of positive mental health.

• Within the UK, mental illness is responsible for the largest burden of disease at 28%, compared to both cancer and heart disease (16%)

• Mixed anxiety and depression are the most common mental disorders in Britain, with 7.8% meeting the criteria for this diagnosis.

• 4% – 10% of people in England are likely to experience depression in their lifetime.

• Recent evidence suggests that 12.7% of all sickness absence days in the UK can be attributed to mental health conditions, with 1 in 6 people (14.7%) likely to experience mental health problems whilst at work.

How Brands Are Aiming to Get Britain Talking About Mental Health

With the number of charities solely dedicated to supporting mental health issues and raising mental health awareness rapidly having increased over the years, leading brands are now developing new partnerships in order to support the cause and bring it to a wider audience.

One example of this is paper stationery brand Silvine creating a new partnership with the UK mental health charity SANE.

By supporting the charity, Silvine state on their website that they will help to further communicate SANE’s vital messages, whilst raising awareness of the importance of mental health and wellbeing.

Unilever have created a Sustainable Living Plan in partnership with the mental health charity, Time to Change, in which the plan commits to help more than 1 billion people globally take action in improving and maintaining their wellbeing by 2020.

The key aim stemming from this are to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, whilst ensuring that their employees are made aware that the company is always there to offer them the support they might need, whether it’s through informal chats or speaking to them online.

And McVities have joined up with Mind, with the joint mission to get Britain talking during ‘tea breaks’ and over a ‘biccie’ in order to help encourage conversation and social connections up and down the country.

According to the Mind website, over 4 million packs of McVities biscuits are being sold with the Mind charity logo and more information on the Let’s Talk campaign printed on them, with McVities having already donated £150,000 to Mind to help support the Time to Change campaign with new hubs and funding towards training 400 new Time to Change champions.