Today is “Let’s Talk” day, a day sponsored by Bell Canada to bring the concerns about Mental Health into the spotlight for at least today. It is a day when high-profiled Olympic athlete Clara Hughes brings to the public the concerns of mental health openly sharing her own struggles with mental well-being. This is the fourth year for the program, sponsored by Bell Canada, and today five cents from every text or long distance call made by Bell customers will go to mental health initiatives across Canada. Since the “Let’s Talkprogram began in 2010 more than $62 million has been raised for mental health programs across the country.
Despite good work being done by agencies for mental health awareness this health challenge still carries huge stigma in our society. People are embarassed and even ashamed to talk about their mental health concerns.
Recently I listened on-line to the sermon given by Rick Warren, evangelical pastor of the very succesful, mega-church in California, on the Sunday he returned to the pulpit after his family tragedy. The Warren’s son, Matthew, died by suicide last April. Matthew was 27 and had struggled for years with depression. Rick Warren spoke with heart-felt honestly about the pain and heartache that the family felt and how they had tried their best to support Matthew for the years as he battled the black dog of depression that accompanied him everywhere.
Over the years I have been in ministry I have often known of members of my congregation that battle depression and other forms of mental illness and almost without exception they do not want anyone else to know. Even though this need for privacy, or secretivness, about their illness only makes their isolation feel even worse, they just can’t talk about it.
I am grateful to Bell and people like Clara Hughes who will encourage us to bring mental illness out of the closet and help us move to a society of positive mental health.
Are you going to talk about it today?
