Creating lasting change
Dedicated to moving mental health forward in Canada, Bell Let’s Talk promotes awareness, acceptance and action with a strategy built on 4 key pillars:
Anti-Stigma
One of the biggest hurdles for anyone struggling with mental illness is overcoming the stigma attached to it. Talking is an important first step towards lasting change. The annual Bell Let’s Talk Day and awareness campaign has become the world’s largest conversation about mental health, encouraging Canadians and people around the world to talk and take action to help reduce stigma and promote awareness and understanding so everyone can get the help they need.
In 2012 Bell established the world’s first Anti-Stigma Research Chair at Queen’s University to continue to advance anti-stigma research, scholarship, and outreach programs.
1,491,774,955
messages of support shared on Bell Let’s Talk Day since 2011
$184 Million
our total funding goal to Canadian mental health initiatives by 2025.
Care & Access
Bell funds organizations large and small throughout Canada, including grassroots agencies, hospitals and post-secondary institutions, to provide Canadians with mental health supports and services.
Through the Bell Let’s Talk Funds, partnerships and major gifts, Bell has supported organizations in every province and territory in Canada, enabling them to improve access to mental health supports and services in communities nationwide.
To learn more about how Bell Let’s Talk is investing in increasing access to care, visit the Our Impact page.
1,100+
grants given through the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund since 2011 to increase access to mental health care and services in local communities.
$5 million
in 2020 to help address the urgent need for increased mental health services and remote tools as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research
Research holds the greatest promise to better understand treatments and solutions. Bell is investing in best-in-class research programs with the potential to have a transformative impact on the mental health and well-being of Canadians.
Bell Let’s Talk has funded research projects across the country, including $3 million to fund the world’s first university chair in mental health and anti-stigma research at Queen’s University and $1 million to fund Canada’s first biobank of biological, social and psychological data at l’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal.
$2 million
announced in 2021 to establish the Bell Let’s Talk-Brain Canada Mental Health Research Program with Brain Canada, leveraging matched funding from the federal government through the Canada Brain Research Fund (CBRF) for a total of $4 million.
Workplace Leadership
One in three workplace disability claims in Canada are related to mental illnesses. Bell is committed to leading by example in our own workplace by adopting the voluntary National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace and is encouraging greater corporate engagement across Canada.
Bell’s initiatives to improve mental health awareness, training and benefits have reduced short-term disability claims related to mental health by over 30%, and reduced relapse and recurrence by more than 50%.
22,300+
Bell Employees and 14,770 Bell Leaders have completed mental health training since 2010.
Unlimited
mental health benefit coverage for Bell team members and their eligible family members.
Our Initiative
In September 2010, Bell Let’s Talk began a new conversation about Canada’s mental health. AT that time, most people were not talking about mental illness. But the numbers spoke volumes about the urgent need for action. Millions of Canadians engaged in an open discussion about mental illness, with numbers growing every year.
As a result, institutions and organizations large and small in every region received new funding for access, care, and research from Bell Let’s Talk and from governments and corporations that have joined the cause.
Creating positive change, together.
While much remains to be done, together we have accomplished so much to move mental health forward. Explore the timeline below to learn about some of the major milestones along the journey.