#PassTheBadge and start talking

27th March 2020

We're proud to support See Me Scotland's Pass the Badge campaign, which encourages us to get talking about our mental health. In these difficult times, it has never been more important to talk and protect Scotland’s mental health.

Dee Mackenzie is Communications and Digital Marketing Officer at See Me, the national programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination in Scotland. In our guest blog, Dee tells us more about the Pass the Badge campaign.

Just because we can’t be together in person, doesn’t mean we have to be alone.

There’s a lot going on right now, but that doesn’t mean you have to feel embarrassed or ashamed to talk about your mental health. If you’re feeling scared, worried or anxious right now that’s normal, and it’s okay to talk about it.

With many of us being asked to stay home, isolate and keep ‘social distance’, we need to look at other ways to stay connected, and support each other with our mental health, so people aren’t struggling to cope alone, or feel awkward or embarrassed to talk about their mental health.

While we are rightly talking and looking after our physical health, we can feel like it’s not the right time to talk about our mental health. However, we know that our physical and mental health are linked and if we can talk about both, then it will improve our well-being.

That’s why at See Me Scotland, we’ve relaunched our Pass the Badge campaign to socially connect people, and show that it’s okay to talk about how we are feeling.

What is Pass the Badge?

We want you to “Start Talking” about mental health using our digital badge. If you are feeling a bit alone right now and unable to talk about your mental health; if you're worried about other people who might be feeling that way; or even if you just want to chat about mental health, visit passthebadge.co.uk,

You can take part by finding a photo which means something to you and uploading it to put our digital badge on. Then share it on social media with a story about why you think it’s important to Start Talking about mental health, sharing how you are feeling right now, using #PassTheBadge

Then tag a couple of your friends, family or colleagues, ask how their mental health is and get them to share their own badge so they can get involved.

If you’d like to get involved in the conversation and connect with others, we’d love to see your picture and story. To help start conversation we’re sharing the message below to encourage people to get involved.

“There’s a lot going on right now, but you don't have to feel embarrassed or ashamed to talk about your mental health. @seemescotland wants to connect people using #PassTheBadge. Visit passthebadge.co.uk to start a conversation on mental health & tag others to join in.”

We look forward to seeing the pictures!

Thanks very much to Dee and the See Me Scotland team for this guest blog and for their work in these difficult times. If you’d like to join the campaign, visit passthebadge.co.uk and join the conversation using #PassTheBadge of social media. If you’re looking for information on protecting your mental health during coronavirus developments, visit samh.org.uk/coronavirus.