Examining a national mental health anti-stigma campaign through a cultural lens: A Canadian example
Background

Mental health stigma is a widespread phenomenon that, among other things, can deter people from seeking mental health treatment. Stigma is a multi-faceted construct that is deeply informed by sociocultural factors such as values and beliefs about mental illness. Research suggests that mental health campaigns seeking to reduce stigma may often be lacking in efforts to incorporate the experiences of culturally and racially diverse populations. This is especially problematic in countries such as Canada, which are increasingly culturally diverse. Campaigns must address the issues faced by people of all backgrounds in order to truly reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. The current study took a content analysis approach to evaluate official videos from the Bell Let’s Talk anti-stigma campaign, which was launched in Canada in 2010. Thirty-six videos, published between 2013 and 2017, were analyzed for culture-related content. Five videos were found to have an individual of a racial/ethnic minority group as the main speaker; two videos mentioned culture in the context of mental illness, albeit briefly. Furthermore, during the 2017 online Bell Let’s Talk Day Twitter campaign, 798 tweets from the official campaign handle were collected. Of these tweets, no tweets or retweets contained any culture-related search terms from a predetermined list. Our results demonstrate that limited cultural perspectives are currently represented in the Bell Let’s Talk campaign. In order to broaden its reach and appeal, we suggest that the campaign seek to include more diverse perspectives and culture-related content in its discussion of mental health and stigma.