WHO Reaches Millions to Help End Mental Health Stigma

Upswell trained and supported the WHO’s social media team in the run-up to World Mental Health Day 2016 on behalf of Facebook. Our training focused on creating content people could use to care for the people they love and actively manage comments and community. The Black Dog post was what their amazing team came up with. To date, this organic-only post (no ad dollars were ever spent) has been viewed more than 100M times. More importantly, the content has had a real impact on the lives of many thousands of people suffering from depression. This really is what good looks like!

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a Facebook campaign on World Health Day to support individuals suffering from depression. The campaign aimed to break the stigma surrounding depression and encourage people to seek help. Despite one in four people experiencing mental illness in their lifetime, the stigma around depression persists. WHO's flagship video garnered over 66,000 shares, demonstrating its success in spreading awareness and promoting the importance of seeking help for mental health issues.