ITV marks mental health awareness week

ITV is curating a range of programming across Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning, Loose Women and Regional News to mark Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 as part of its ongoing commitment to promoting mental wellbeing and shining a light on mental health. 

Mental health advocate Martin Lewis guest-presented Good Morning Britain today, with the show commissioning a survey to look at the effect of the cost of living crisis on the nation’s mental health. Leading psychologists Dr Elizabeth Kilby and Dr Julie Smith joined This Morning today for a children’s mental health phone in and gave expert advice to the nation on coping with anxiety.  

On Tuesday, Lorraine Kelly faces her fears in a powerful film reflecting on a horse-riding accident that almost took her life. She will also meet mental health campaigner Ben West who discusses his new publication, This Book Could Save Your Life.

On Thursday, Loose Women features a special edition of ‘Loose Men’, where Vernon Kay, Roman Kemp, Mike Tindall MBE and Johannes Radebe will lift the lid on the mental health struggles that affect men as part of the show’s long-standing Stand By Your Men campaign. They’ll also discuss the exclusive Loose Men’s Male Mental Health survey, which reveals money worries are the thing most affecting men’s mental health right now.
 
All ITV’s regional news programmes are covering mental health in a variety of ways. 

ITV Anglia will run a series of self-authored pieces from people who have experienced a range of mental health conditions. ITV West Country delves into the impact of the cost of living crisis on mental health, working alongside Gloucestershire Bundles, a charity helping families struggling to buy everyday supplies. ITV Granada visits a resilience hub in Lancashire helping doctors and nurses suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder post-pandemic.

ITV’s groundbreaking mental health campaign, Britain Get Talking, will be back with a new initiative encouraging people to tackle loneliness among their friends and family. 

Additionally, new ITV-backed wellness brand Woo will release a three-part docuseries exploring the benefits of psychedelics on mental health. The Bigger Trip will premiere on ITV Hub on Thursday 12th May.

Behind the scenes, ITV will be training over 500 senior staff in a new workshop delivered by Mindflex's Dr Vanessa Moulton on encouraging the psychological health of those around us. ITV colleagues will also be able to join a mental health Q&A with English cricketer Monty Panesar. 

ITV launched its groundbreaking mental wellness campaign Britain Get Talking in October 2019 by pausing Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions to create a space to start a national conversation about mental wellness. 

Since then, Britain Get Talking campaigns – supported by the charities Mind, YoungMinds and SAMH – have been a regular feature on ITV.  In February the campaign marked the milestone of encouraging 100 million new or more meaningful conversations among the UK public as a result of Britain Get Talking since it began. 

Mental wellness is at the heart of ITV’s Social Purpose strategy which has the target of encouraging the public to take 200 million actions to support positive mental and physical health by 2023.

Susie Braun, Director of Social Purpose, said: “This Mental Health Awareness Week falls in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and in the midst of a cost of living crisis, both of which are having deep effects on the mental health of the nation. 

“It’s important to ITV and to our viewers that we can shine a light on this topic from many different angles in many different shows, as part of our ongoing commitment to promoting mental wellbeing.”

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