Singapore has a growing mental health problem. According to research by the Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 7 Singaporeans have experienced a mental health condition in their lifetime, up from the 1 in 8 identified six years ago.
When the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) surveyed the nation to understand the quality of life for these individuals, they found some heartbreaking findings.
While 80% of Singaporeans acknowledge that PMHCs experience stigma and discrimination, and 9 in 10 said Singaporeans need to be more “tolerant”, their own behaviour suggested otherwise --
Case Study Video
We were first responders to this problem with Beyond the Label - A national movement to raise awareness of mental health stigma, equip Singaporeans with the know-how to support persons with mental health conditions through recovery, and showcase the contributions of persons in recovery to society.
In our first year, we shifted Singaporeans’ perception of PMHCs from “weak and sick” to “resilient” , and created a safe space on our Facebook where the nation could have open and honest conversations about mental health.
But more had to be done beyond just changing the narrative. We needed to get PMHCs to seek help.
The paradox of mental health stigma
Singaporeans are paradoxically biased when it comes to mental health – we say Singaporeans “should be more tolerant”, and yet our behaviours suggest otherwise. This is implicit bias – stereotypes and misconceptions that affect our actions subconsciously and contradict the positive opinions we declare publicly.
In order to “save face” and find acceptance in a society that shuns them, individuals with mental health conditions end up endorsing these biases. This is self-stigma.
We sought to reveal Singaporeans’ self-stigma toward mental health conditions, among PMHCs themselves, and their parents, caregivers, employers, co-workers and schoolmates, and provoke the first steps towards recovery.
By demonstrating how your self-stigma about mental health conditions affect your or a close one’s ability to discuss them and find help.
The things left unsaid hinder the support we need so it’s time to…
The campaign launched with a trio of Manifesto videos that surfaced our self-stigma as PMHCs, partners, employers and parents and the truth – that we need to just support each other and seek recovery. Each situation was curated from real-life accounts from PMHCs interviewed, and drove viewers to Belle, our AI-assisted mental health directory.
Key visuals drew real life statements of mental health bias by both public and PMHCs, across various social environments – home, work and school, to reflect heart-breaking sentiments that hinder PMHCs from receiving the support and help they need.
To bridge the gap between the public and access to mental health resources, all 6-sheets contained a QR code that drove to Belle, our AI-assisted mental health directory.
Belle, an AI-powered chat-based directory on Facebook Messenger alleviates the daunting task of searching for help for a mental health condition via traditional search engine or awkward face-to-face queries.
The bot aggregates local counselling, clinical, employment, helplines, community & volunteering opportunities according to local geography, age and caregiver segments with the power of AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). All queries are anonymized until the user provides contact details for further arrangements.
It was developed for Facebook and WhatsApp as a social-first, mobile-first, messaging-first mental health resource for youths who are predominantly on mobile devices, given that 78% of all web traffic are via mobile.
Experience it here on Facebook Messenger : m.me/beyondthelabelsg
The bot’s NLP was trained by pre-loading clinical keywords to recognize and segment queries by types of condition, help required and those requiring emergency interventions, and draws from NCSS’ database of resources based on in-chat queries to provide summarized information about various conditions.
Belle was purposefully not trained to act as a virtual therapy device but to rapidly connect undiagnosed PMHCs to actual social service workers. Emergency queries are transmitted to a panel of social service agency volunteers from various agencies to step in and provide help.
Belle Demo Screens
Social editorials featured the very similar life experiences our PMHC ambassadors share with most Singaporeans – as spouses, partners, children, co-workers, friends to reinforce that the road to recovery starts with a simple act of support from us.
Each editorial compelled the public to post and share their own experience around mental health. These UGCs were then re-posted as content on the campaign Facebook page.
Beyond the Label Festival concentrated NCSS, partners and agency efforts towards a major on-ground activation for Singaporeans to “experience” the topic and drive Belle as a solution point.
Workshops by mental health awareness movements to promote mental wellbeing.
Mental health awareness streetwear, books and products sold by local brands
Arts exhibition by Temasek Polytechnic under our creative guidance, to promote inclusion of youths with mental health conditions.
Music performers with their personal brushes with mental health conditions expressed mental health advocacy through lyrics.
Experiential booths by the Youth Alliance – various institutes of higher learning and youth-related organizations created escape rooms, games and counselling spots to help the public find support.
Social influencers and content publishers reached out to their own followers to attend the Festival, display their support online via social badging pre-Festival and on World Mental Health Day as well as to raise awareness of Belle the helpbot.
Since Belle’s launch, NCSS now routes an average of 174 previously unreachable requests daily to more than a hundred different helplines, centres, programmes and services.
86.64% uplift in no. of users even after campaign ended – and growing
Average dwell time of 8.46 min vs global^ Facebook Messenger average of 1.48 min (^statista 2020)
Allowing NCSS to focus on social services instead of social traffic, with 95.8% of all traffic requests resolved by the bot itself
Belle has also enabled NCSS to better understand help-seeking patterns among various demographic segments to inform our future communications – insights that NCSS would not have been able to acquire via past touchpoints.
About 50% seek help for themselves vs. someone else
3% prefer to stay anonymous when seeking help
1 in 3 seeking help are youths
Highest traffic arrived from the Youth-related visuals and videos
Top 3 services enquired were counselling, caregiver support and employment
