Bell Let’s Talk continues to start mental health conversation

Loyalist students Jewel Casey (left) and Ally Carswell (right) share their mental health messages. Photo by Leila Nasr, QNet News

By Thomas Goyer

BELLEVILLE – Bell Let’s Talk mental health awareness campaign continued to grow as it had its most successful year in its nine-year history.

There were over 144 million online interactions yesterday, raising $7.2 million according to the Bell Let’s Talk website

The campaign is more important than ever, said Katie Maitland, who helped organize the Bell Let’s Talk Day booth at Loyalist College yesterday.

“Sometimes people use their phones as a coping mechanism when they are going through a lot of things so just showing the support for your followers or your friends. I think it as gotten more important as the years have gone on and it’s gotten even bigger,” Maitland said. “It is important to have a day specific for mental health, and I think it’s something so small to, it’s just 5 cents by watching a video or by tweeting, even just talking about it bringing it up in conversation to get people talking.”

Wellness table set up in the Link Lounge for #BellLetsTaIkday #QNetNews pic.twitter.com/y1F5zqXNQV

— Thomas Goyer (@ThomasGoyer) January 30, 2019

Words of inspiration and support were added on a wall in the Link Lounge at Loyalist. They were written by students who stopped by the booth to have a conversation. The booth organizers gave out Bell Let’s Talk hats and encouraging people to share a message for others.

One of those students was Taylor Lemire.

“I think it’s an opportunity for people who don’t usually talk about it on a regular basis to open up about it because a lot of other people are doing it, so I think it’s pretty important,” she said.

Every year the campaign has raised more money for helping to end the stigma around mental health, this being the ninth year.

Abby Refausse, another student organizer of the event, says the it has improved how people look at mental health.

“I think the importance has always been there because it is mental health and we need as much attention as we can get, especially with today’s society and the amount of mental health issues we see now a days. But I think it’s amazing in regards to importance of how much we’ve improved over the years so the millions of dollars more we are fundraising every year,”

Students that spoke to QNet News gave Positive feedback, but instead of only being aware of it one day a year, a student suggests otherwise.

“Yeah this is good to bring awareness, but with the awareness has to come action, so getting out and talking to people is very important. In a way it should be an every day thing,” Chase Lavender said.