On January 24, the Government of Saskatchewan launched a public awareness campaign to help address the stigma often experienced by those facing mental health and addictions issues.
The theme of the campaign—There is Help, There is Hope—focuses on changing the perceptions individuals have on mental health and addictions, and to reduce the stigma surrounding it.
Through different platforms, people from Saskatchewan will share their personal stories about their experience of addictions, mental health issues, or have counselled people with those experiences.
The campaign includes newspapers, television, cinema, radio, billboard, transit buses, and social media. The radio spots will be translated into Cree and Dene as well.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Everett Hindley spoke with The World-Spectator about what the provincial government hopes to achieve from this campaign.
What do you hope to accomplish from this campaign?
What it focuses on is changing the underlying attitudes, behaviors and beliefs that contribute to the stigma.
We’ve partnered with a number of Saskatchewan folks, some are actresses, musicians, some are social media influencers, some are addictions councillors, some are people with lived experiences who are using their voice to help promote that there’s an opportunity for people, and a powerful message of hope and recovery for folks, by sharing their stories to help reach as many people as we possibly can, to let people across Saskatchewan know that, in these particularly challenging times we’re facing, in this second year of the pandemic which is making things more stressful for everyone, but I think that’s what the message is about, which is trying to help promote awareness about mental health issues and to let people know that they aren’t alone facing these challenges.
For individuals who are currently facing mental health and addiction issues, how will this campaign help them?
There’s a number of different areas where we try to provide help and offer support to people out there.
The Government of Saskatchewan funds a number of services and supports across this province, as part of our overall mental health and addictions budget.
That can include any number of things, whether it’s outpatient treatments for adults, children and youth. There are services in a number of centres and smaller clinics around the province for screening and assessments services, there’s consultation services, and acute mental health impatient services in our major eight centres as well, psychiatric rehabilitation, including community residential supports, then of course Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford, is providing more in-depth support for people.
In addition to that, I think what the campaign is about is letting people know that there is help out there, and it’s helping to promote conversation amongst folks.
If you listen to some of the messages in some of the videos that we released, there’s everything, from recommending people that they speak to their doctors, talk to your family on a regular basis, reach out to your friends and neighbors, and make sure that you take time each and every day as much as you can, to take time out for yourself, and to participate in activities that help you de-stress and improve your own mental health.
I think part of the goal of this is for individuals and people across the province to recognize that you truly aren’t alone in this.
There’s all kinds of people across this province and some are former Saskatchewan residents that live abroad right now who are famous individuals, who have faced mental health and addiction challenges throughout their lives and some of these folks are social media influencers in our own backyard, some are addictions councillors and some are people with their own lived experiences that can tell their story.
I think what that helps to do is that it helps people realize that they might not be alone, that they might have a personal situation that might be very similar to any one of these individuals who’s participated in the media campaign, and it makes you recognize and realize why your challenges may be unique to your own individual situation.
It does let you know that you truly aren’t alone in some of these matters, but I think that helps promote conversation, and it helps promote awareness around some of the mental health challenges that each and every one of us face.
In regards to the success of the campaign, how do you expect to track the results?
As a formal metric I think what we’re going to do is taking a look at the number of calls and emails that might come into help lines as an example, to track some of the information and data that comes through the website links and videos that are going to be shared through social media, take a look at some of those social media metrics, the views, that sort of thing.
On a more informal basis, we’ll also be taking feedback from stakeholders and the general public into account, to hear from people about what they think, about what worked, and perhaps some areas that we need to do a little better on.
Is this campaign’s target audience people who are currently facing mental health and addiction issues, or is it directed to individuals who don’t fully understand the effects of mental health?
It’s a bit of both, I think the target audience truly is everyone. It’s for people that might be struggling with mental health on their own and mental health challenges right now, to let them know that they aren’t alone, that there are resources available to try and promote those opportunities for folks.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that each and every one of us, has something of a mental health challenge in our lives, and has good times and bad times.
There’s times you know where you’re really feeling under a lot of pressure and under a lot of stress, part of the other goal of this campaign is to continue the conversation to know that it’s okay to reach out for help, that it’s okay to say you might be struggling, to know that it’s not something to be ashamed of, and to be able to reach out to talk to others.
If you look at some of the videos a part of this campaign and some of the folks who are participating in it, you get everyone from addiction councillors, there’s people with lived experience, people who are social media influencers, to some fairly famous individuals who are from Saskatchewan. It just goes to show mental health affects each and every one of us.
How will people who don’t have access to technology, be reached by the awareness campaign?
I think there are a number of avenues that people could access, we’re trying to reach people through a number of different means whether it’s through social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, also through traditional media like TV, radio stations, newspapers, that sort of thing.
We’re trying to get the message out as broadly as we can. In terms of being able to view the videos, I’m sure folks can probably get access through their local public library for example, to see some of these links. Again, we’ll feature them very prominently through the campaign over these next couple of months here, and make sure we get the message out to as many people as possible.
It does help put a face on the issue of mental health not just in our province, but across Canada, and I think it localizes it a bit for us here. When you see some folks that are well known, whether it’s people who are from the entertainment industry and have a large following who are well known for that reason, but I also think through other social media influencers and those who are people who have lived experience, can speak about most importantly, how they have faced their challenges head on and what they’ve done to turn their lives around.
I think those are some of the most powerful messages coming from people like that, who share their personal experiences and I just think that if we can get the message out there, you never know, that could be the difference that might save a life.
Somebody can hear, or read about that message, and realize that they truly aren’t here alone in this and that there might be someone that’s quite well known, who’s faced a mental challenge that is similar to their own.
This year, the province has invested a record $458 million in mental health and addictions supports and services, accounting for 7.5 per cent of the overall Health Budget.