The Mental Health Awareness Bracelet campaign focuses on addressing the pervasive challenge of mental health stigma. Despite increased efforts to support individuals with mental illness, stigma remains a significant barrier to seeking help and achieving well-being. A study by the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London identified stigma as one of the top reasons individuals do not seek care (Clement et al., 2015). This reluctance to access care due to stigma can lead to negative impacts on an individual’s health and quality of life.
Stigma not only affects individuals' choice to find care but also perpetuates misunderstanding and discrimination in various aspects of their lives, including relationships, work opportunities, and societal interactions. Surveys indicate that the prevalence of stigma has persisted over time with 74% of respondents to a mental health survey saying they felt the prevalence of mental health stigma has not improved over the last decade (Rethink Mental Illness, 2021).
To address this challenge, Otsuka partnered with Mental Health America (MHA) to launch the Mental Health Awareness Bracelet campaign, aimed at combating both self- and public stigma surrounding mental health. Our campaign goals were to increase awareness and reduce stigma by making it easy for people to monitor their own mental health, share how they are feeling, and spark conversations about mental health. By challenging stigma, we’re working towards a future where mental health conversations are commonplace, physical and mental health have parity, and people are able to ask for and seek out support.
Otsuka is a healthcare company creating new products for better health worldwide, with a focus in the central nervous system (CNS) space. Otsuka’s presence in the CNS space and our specific focus on stigma uniquely position us to address the stigma that people living with mental illness face. To best address this issue, we collaborated with MHA to introduce the Mental Health Awareness Bracelet campaign. The campaign centers around a simple yet powerful tool – a dual-sided bracelet with the messages, “Today feels hard” and “I count today as a good day.” The bracelet is designed as both a personal check-in tool and a visible symbol to others. It encourages wearers to reflect on their mental wellbeing daily, to visibly share how they are feeling, and to invite conversations about mental health. Each day, the wearer has an opportunity to choose which side of the bracelet to display to the world. With this choice, they easily let others around them know how they are feeling, thus sparking conversations, creating connection, and increasing opportunities for support. This bracelet was intentionally designed to be an accessible tool for anyone, including individuals living with mental illness, teens, older adults, caregivers, and professionals.
Otsuka created the idea for this bracelet then provided grant funding to MHA to produce 25,000 bracelets for distribution for free to the public. The funding also supported the development of digital resources for both the bracelet wearer and their networks. This resource hub walks bracelet users through a step-by-step process for checking in on their own mental health. It also includes a section for people who know or observe someone wearing the bracelet that outlines ways to acknowledge and support someone wearing the bracelet.
MHA leveraged their 120+ years of experience, expert opinion, and focus groups to ensure maximum relevance and impact. The focus groups were an important tool to ensure that the campaign was thoughtful and inclusive. These focus groups represented a broad audience including youth, mental health leaders, and Otsuka employees. Additionally, participants in the focus groups helped us uncover an important challenge and new paths forward. When this idea was first developed, the bracelets were intended to say, “I am okay” and “I’m not okay.” Focus groups revealed that participants felt uncomfortable wearing a bracelet with these messages publicly. They also expressed a preference for affirming, uplifting words that allowed them to safely yet authentically communicate how they are feeling. With this feedback, we were able to identify new language that people felt more comfortable with and better represented their mindset.
In preparation for the campaign launch, the team developed an integrated marketing plan, which included the creation of copy, video, and photo assets to be leveraged across multiple channels, including MHA's, Otsuka's, and the Society of Valued Mind's (an Otsuka project) platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, email, and internal communications channels.
The success of the campaign has exceeded our expectations, underscoring the urgency and relevance of addressing mental health stigma. Within three hours of launch, all 25,000 bracelets (ordered to last the whole year) sold out! Additionally, 700 bulk orders were placed, requesting a total of 136,000 bracelets. In response to this demand, we quickly granted MHA funding to order another 25,000 bracelets.
MHA surveyed bracelet users to learn more about the campaign’s impact. About 35% of respondents said the bracelet was "very much" helpful in reminding them to check on their mental health daily. Nearly half of participants felt it was effective in sparking conversations about mental health. 38% of users increased their awareness of mental health issues, and 31% said it was useful for helping others understand their mental health. More than half of the respondents reported that the bracelet made them feel more comfortable discussing their mental health. Over 50% of respondents shared the bracelet within their community, further spreading its impact. Among those wearing the bracelet, about 25% identified as having a mental disability, and nearly 30% reported having a mental health or substance use condition. This highlights how the bracelet has been effective in encouraging conversation, raising awareness, and fostering community engagement.
To sustain this program long-term and to provide a revenue stream for MHA, we have granted MHA the rights to sell the bracelets for the remainder of 2024. MHA will collect data on sales to understand the impact over a longer period.
