Bell Let’s Talk celebrated their 10th anniversary on Jan. 29 with the theme of “every action counts.”
The focus was “on the ways Canadians everywhere can take action in our daily lives to support better mental health in our communities,” according to a press release from Bell Canada.
According to Bell, the company has raised a total of over $100 million in the past decade from donations, including a $50 million starting anchor donation from Bell when the campaign was first launched.
Coinciding with the awareness day was the third annual Mental Wellness Fair, hosted by campus health services. The post-secondary campus campaigns for Bell Let’s Talk grew out of a student-athlete initiative that started at 11 universities in Atlantic Canada in 2016. This year, 227 post-secondary institutions across the country participated with their own campaigns.
“Let’s Talk Day is an initiative that aims to decrease this stigma by promoting it on a single day, however by no means is this conversation meant to be confined to one day,” said Nicole DiBagio, an organizer of the event at Carleton, in an email statement.
“This event brings together on and off campus partners to show a unified support of mental wellness and decreasing the stigma associated with speaking of our mental health,” she added.
This year’s fair included outside partners, such as Hopewell, who focuses on helping people suffering from eating disorders, and Good2Talk, an anonymous calling service that helps students find mental health resources. The goal was to spread the message outside of campus, said DiBagio.
The theme for the initiative is something that DiBagio says, “cannot be more true.”
“Whether you’re a friend that lends an ear, a counsellor that works daily in the field, or an instructor teaching your class about the supports available to them on campus, you never know who you will reach and just how much of an impact you made on someone who needed it,” she said.
This year’s fair included information booths featuring both on and off-campus resources for students, including community colouring murals, therapy dogs, a regrow workshop where students pot their own plant and take it home, a stress ball workshop and massage chairs.
However, people have been criticizing Bell for promoting Let’s Talk Day when this rhetoric is not extended to prisoners.
Bell is the only service provider in Canadian correctional facilities and inmates are only allowed to place collect calls to landmines, not cellphones and families can be charged up to $1 per call, according to a Global News article.
Critics have said this removes prisoners suffering mental health issues from their support systems.
DiBagio stressed the importance of having good support for mental health when it comes to young adults and the role Bell Let’s Talk day plays in that.
“Bell Let’s Talk Day is an initiative that aims to decrease this stigma by promoting it on a single day, however by no means is this conversation meant to be confined to one day,” said DiBagio.
“The idea is that by using the power of social media, we can water a conversation that will grow and develop overtime. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Graphic by Farhan Tasin. With files from Serena Halani.
