Professional athletes promote mental illness awareness using #BellLetsTalk hashtag

Amanda Gonzalez|February 1, 2016

Have you noticed the recently trending hashtag #BellLetsTalk? Do you know what it means?

Bell Let’s Talk is a Canadian charitable program dedicated to mental health. This awareness campaign has raised over $100 million to focus on reducing mental illness stigmas; supporting care and access; workplace health; and research for treatments and cures.

Jan. 28 was the sixth annual Bell Let’s Talk Day, which had a record-breaking 125,915,295 calls, texts, tweets and shares, and raised $6,295,764.75 more for Canadian mental health, according to the organization’s website.

Several professional athletes – such as Toronto Blue Jays’ baseball players José Bautista and Josh Donaldson, as well as Canadian-born hockey player Tyler Seguin – used Twitter to share the hashtag and spread the word.

Canadian Olympic cyclist and speed skater Clara Hughes is a spokesperson for the organization, who personally suffers from depression. In 2014, she rode her bike across the country for four months to raise awareness for mental health.

At the start of her journey, Hughes said to CBC News, “The conversation is getting louder and louder. I think this ride is going to bring Canadians together. Not just in joy, but in struggle – It’s time that we stop pretending mental illness does not exist.”

In the United States, the Los Angeles Kings supported the organization’s initiative by adding the hashtag on highlight videos and score updates during their hockey game on Jan. 27.

The Canadian charity organization says that conversation is the first step towards change, so here are some facts about mental health in the United States from 2014, according to mentalhealth.gov:

·         One in 10 young people experience a period of major depression.

·         Less than 20 percent of children and youth with diagnosable mental health problems receive needed treatment.

·         Many people with mental health problems are highly active and productive community members.

·         Genes and illness, along with traumatic life experience, and family history of mental health problems are factors can contribute to mental health.

·         Friends and loved ones can help people suffering with mental health by refusing to define them by their diagnosis or using labels such as “crazy.”

·         Studies show that people with mental health problems can get better and many recover completely.

During the National Hockey League’s All-Star Game hype, several U.S. teams and players used their spotlight to honor the game’s leading county in their fight against mental illness.