Heading: Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing through social and mass medias
Social media platforms are progressively developing as rich sources of mass communication and engagement. Increasing mental health awareness with the help of social media can be a good initiative to reach out to a wider number of people in a short time frame.
Mental health is key in every phase of life, from childhood to adulthood. We all go through several milestones and difficulties; mental health is important to keep balance and stability.
Mental health plays a big role in our overall health and wellbeing. Yet, there is still a stigma behind it. Society in general has distorted the view on our mental health and how it affects people. Each and every one of us has a mind, therefore we have a duty to take care of our mental health. The situation is accentuated by the media and the concept of mental illness that is distributed.
Conversations about mental health are something that many individuals have tried to avoid. However, in recent years it has become more and more common for individuals to open up about mental health.
To enhance this and contribute to the mental health awareness, CHB conducted a massive social media campaign which started from the World Mental Health Day (10th December, 2022) to 28th December, 2022 under the theme “Make Mental health and Well-being for All a Global Priority”. Through CHB social media accounts, there have been a lot of posts shared with resources, educational motion videos, posters and motivational posts to show support.
This was done by sharing infographics and posters providing mental health related information and broader messaging to raise awareness of mental health using the summarized information illustrated in well-designed posters and attractive to readers. These messages mainly addressing and breaking misconceptions and myths around mental health were captured and tempered with expert for review and approved messages were posted on all our social media, websites, and individual social media of our esteemed volunteers, stakeholders, and other collaborators.
Mainly the information shared during this campaign looked at raising awareness on distinguished mental health issues, ways of coping, normalizing discussions and openness around mental health, encouraging the affected to seek support, calling for the community to support those struggling with mental health issues, and informing them of where they can get the related support and treatment. This contributed much to the journey of stopping discrimination and stigma against people with mental health issues.
The campaign was conducted by sharing a daily poster or video on social media and other networks, with each day having a unique message. Generally, this campaign was so vibrant and reached a lot of people. Through Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, the shared posts had a total of 51,000 impressions and 13,000 engagements including likes, shares, and retweets.
To add on, personal participation was not limited to the above-mentioned social media as most of the individuals used WhatsApp and Facebook to share information and posters on the statutes, direct messages, and WhatsApp groups. This is undoubtedly reached a lot of people and is thought to have brought a positive change in the perspectives of mental health.
The HashTags: #MHD2022, #MentalHealthMatters, #MentalHealthDayRw
Furthermore, during this campaign, a team of CHB staff were invited to the Isango Star Healthy Life TV Show to talk about the role of everyone in maintaining mental health.
Wthin this one-hour TV Show, the team discussed on distinguished menal healh issues including depression, anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Drugs and Alcohol Addiction, Schizoprenia and the related way of coping and seeking help.
They also shared testimonies and stories about the mental disorder they faced or witnessed and how they got out of it just to help the other people struggling with the same issues to learn from these testimonies.
The Show was too open for these watching to ask qustions and express their opinions and the questions asked were answered.
Apart from the TV Show, the CHB team also conducted the Radio Talk on “The Relationship Between Mental Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR).