A charity has launched an appeal encouraging the British public to show their support for Mental Health Awareness Week.

The Green Ribbon campaign, which is run by the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, allows people to show their support for ending the stigma around mental health in the workplace.

Last year, more than 170,000 green ribbons were sold to firms throughout the UK. High-profile buildings such as the Houses of Parliament were also lit up green to show solidarity.

With social distancing rules in place, the initiative has had to move online, and people are now being encouraged to wear a green ribbon on their social media profile picture alongside the hashtag #EndTheStigma.

According to the charity, 90% of us have been impacted by a mental health challenge either directly or indirectly through a friend or family member, with six out of ten of us experiencing mental health challenges without ever mentioning it to work colleagues.

With the impact of mental health challenges heightened during Covid-19, the charity says that the wellbeing of employees is more important than ever since their campaign began four years ago.

Anyone wanting to take part can download the digital green ribbon from the charity’s website (https://greenribbon.thelordmayorsappeal.org). There they can also find a suite of other digital materials, such as posters, email signatures and social media cover photos.

Like all of us, mental health organisations have been finding new ways to support people online. One organisation told us that since moving their entire team of therapists and support staff online they had managed to deliver more than 1,000 counselling sessions over the phone.

Jacqui Taylor, Chief Executive of Lifelink, said:

With social distancing in place some of our clients might be going all week without really having a conversation with anyone other than the hour they spend with a Lifelink therapist – for these clients that call truly becomes a lifeline, in some cases the difference between life and death.

Photo by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal

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