Outstanding Corporation: Bell Canada

In September 2010 Canada’s largest communications company, Bell, set out to accelerate the awareness, understanding and treatment of mental illness through the Bell Let’s Talk Mental Health Initiative. With an unprecedented $50-million commitment, Bell’s multi-year initiative is dedicated to the promotion and support of mental health across Canada, a pervasive yet chronically under-funded national health concern. Embedded within Bell’s program are four key action pillars: Anti-stigma, Care and Access, Research, and Workplace Health.

The stigma of mental health can be as debilitating as the disease, as two in every three people with mental health issues suffer in silence and half of Canadians admit they would hide a family member’s mental illness. Last year Bell launched Bell Let’s Talk, a national awareness campaign to reduce the stigma and promote greater openness about mental illness. The company’s donation on February 9, 2011 of five cents per text and long-distance call generated an additional $3.3 million for Canadian mental health programs.

Supportive solutions for treatment from local grassroots care to telemedicine and mental health care programs delivered by leading institutions, help connect Canadians to mental health support when, and where they need it. The $1 million Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund distributed 49 grants to organizations across Canada. A $1 million commitment was made to the Royal Ottawa Hospital for its Telepsychiatry Program and will benefit rural, northern and remote communities. Bell’s $10 million contribution to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) helped this world-leading institution exceed its landmark $100 million fundraising goal. The new Bell Gateway Building in Toronto will transform CAMH’s ‘front door’ and help to break down barriers to service.

Bell is taking a leadership role by developing and adopting mental health best practices in its own workplace. A multi-faceted approach provides enhanced access to mental health information for 50,000 Bell team members and senior leaders through seminar and other learning opportunities. Its support of corporate roundtables and other initiatives across Canada seeks to improve corporate culture across the broader business landscape.

Critical to these efforts to understand, treat and prevent mental illness is also the recruiting of the best researchers, funding new research chairs and fellowships, and investing in best-in-class research programs at hospitals, universities and other institutions across Canada, such as Montréal’s Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital and the University of British Columbia.

The largest corporate commitment in support of mental health, this initiative is colossal in size, scope and relevance to Canadians from coast to coast and is already making a direct difference in the lives of Canadians. For more information, visit www.bell.ca/letstalk.

Bell Canada was nominated for this award by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Foundation.