It’s Mental Health Week! Now GET LOUD!

For Dr. Smith, CMHA’s Mental Health Week campaign to GET LOUD is an important call to action: “We need the conversation to get very, very loud. The people we love – and the people we elect – need to hear that mental health is an essential part of health, and of health care.”

And Canadians, including the Prime Minister of Canada, are listening. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a public statement today, promoting CMHA’s GET LOUD campaign, and encouraging Canadians to GET LOUD for Mental Health Week.

CMHA introduced Mental Health Week (MHW) in 1951 and it has become a Canadian tradition. MHW offers Canadians practical ways to maintain and improve their mental health and support their recovery from mental illness. The reality is that even if we don’t struggle with our own mental health, we all know someone who does. Mental Health Week is the perfect forum for Canadians to speak up about how mental health affects them and the people they care about.

This year, we are paying special attention to the mental health of older Canadians, who are affected disproportionately by mental illness, especially by depression.

There are many ways to GET LOUD for mental health. Here are just a few:

Log in to MentalHealthWeek.ca for ways to GET LOUD. Getting loud this Mental Health Week? Tell us how you’re getting loud and you’ll have a chance to win one of three iPads.. CMHA’sinteractive map will track – in real time – how Canadians are getting loud from province to province.

#GETLOUD on Social Media

With the support of Canadians on social media, the hashtag #GetLoud will be trending.

Wear green loud and proud!

One of the ways Canadians are getting loud is by going green. The colour green, once used to stigmatize and label people as “insane,” will be worn loud and proud this Mental Health Week. In addition to donning green ribbons, buttons and t-shirts (and maybe even a few green ‘hair-dos’), communities across the country are lighting up buildings and landmarks in green to signal their support.

Check out an event!

CMHAs, in hundreds of communities across Canada, are hosting MHW events and activities from BBQs to Walk-in Counselling. For a listing of events, visit CMHA’s Mental Health Week website.

To find even more GET LOUD ideas and to view CMHA’s new video, visit CMHA’s Mental Health Week website.

This year’s Mental Health Week is generously supported by Presenting Sponsor: Dialog Design; Major Sponsors: CEDA, The Medicine Shoppe, Salesforce, Home Trust; and Supporting Sponsors: Bell Let’s Talk, Echo Foundation, Beauty of Giving, Pearson, Tokii Wearable Therapy, and CGI. Read about how our sponsors are getting loud at MentalHealthWeek.ca

It’s Mental Health Week. It’s time for all of us to GET LOUD, all week long.