MONTREAL – Bell will donate a further $6.3 million to Canadian mental health programs after Wednesday’s Bell Let’s Talk Day recorded nearly 126 million calls, tweets, texts and shares.
Over the 28.5 hour period between midnight Newfoundland time and midnight Pacific time on January 27, Bell Let's Talk Day 2016 tallied 125,915,295 total interactions, including wireless calls, long distance calls and texts by Bell customers, and tweets and Facebook shares supporting Bell Let's Talk by people around Canada and worldwide – a 3.1% increase over the 122,150,772 total interactions on Bell Let's Talk Day 2015.
The top Twitter trend in Canada, #BellLetsTalk was the most-used hashtag in the world, with 6,826,114 total tweets and retweets – 43% more than last year. The #stopthestigma, #endthestigma, #mentalhealthawareness and #sicknotweak hashtags also trended throughout the day.
Support came from a number of Canadian leaders including Governor General David Johnston and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as the Royal family with tweets from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Will and Kate and Prince Harry.
With Bell's donation of 5 cents per interaction, the company pledged to donate $6,295,764.75 more for Canadian mental health programs. The company’s total donation to mental health programs since the initiative kicked off in 2010 now stands at $79,919,178.55.
"People ask me, is just one day like Bell Let's Talk Day really enough to take on a health crisis so pervasive, that affects all of us in some way, that has been so incredibly difficult to move forward for so long? And I say, but it isn't just one day. It's the kickoff to a conversation we want and need to have every day, and one that I think we are increasingly having all year long”, said Bell Let's Talk national spokesperson Clara Hughes, in the news release. It's the day when we all say: We won't allow the stigma, we won't allow the silence anymore, we're ready to make mental health part of our lives from this day forward. All year long. Lifelong."
"To Clara, to our tremendous Bell Let's Talk team, and to everyone who is helping move the cause forward, thank you for joining and growing Canada's mental health conversation like never before”, added Bell Let’s Talk chair Mary Deacon. “Your participation continues to drive Bell's donations to mental health programs and we're excited at the impressive new initiatives we've been able to partner with already this year. The all-Canadian Bell Let's Talk has become a worldwide phenomenon, underlining what I think is a global aspiration for a major move forward in the way we view mental illness and practice mental health.”
