Bell Let's Talk Day sets record, raises $7.7M for mental health initiatives

RPS' PACT Unit offers mental health support Watch: The Police and Crisis Team is second on scene to help deal with mental health crisis'. Cole Davenport explains.

TORONTO — The 10th edition of Bell Let's Talk Day was the most successful one yet.

Bell, which owns CTV News, says it logged 154,387,425 "messages of support for mental health" on Wednesday – a six per cent increase from 2019.

Those messages took the form of voice calls, text messages, views of a Bell Let's Talk video on social media, and certain actions on Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat.

With the company pledging to donate five cents to mental health initiatives around the country from each interaction, the 154 million messages equate to a record donation of $7,719,371.25.

"An amazing outcome for our 10th anniversary Bell Let's Talk Day as the mental health message resonated like never before," Bell Canada and BCE president and CEO Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

"Thank you everyone for your truly inspiring support for progress in mental health."

Bell Let's Talk Day spokespeople, ambassadors and friends also participated in more than 550 events across the country on Wednesday.

Wednesday's total breaks the record set in 2019, when there were more than 145 million interactions. In total, more than $108 million has been raised for mental health initiatives since the Bell Let's Talk program began.

Canadian mental health charities looking to apply for money from the Bell Let's Talk Community Fund have until March 16 to do so.