Calgary Flames Players Raising Mental Health Awareness

Hockey players are a good bunch. Calgary Flames, past and present are among the millions showing support for the ‘Let’s Talk’ hash tag, raising mental health awareness.

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The campaign backed by Bell invites people to talk, text, tweet and share in the hopes of removing the stigma attached to mental health issues. It’s goal is to make it okay to talk about depression or other concerns and not be belittled for it.

As reported on the Montreal Canadiens’ website, the Calgary Flames are among several Canadian hockey teams outwardly showing their support for the campaign, reaching out to their fanbases in hopes of spreading the message further.

Through simply sharing the ‘Let’s Talk’ hashtag, conversations can be started. Several Calgary Flames players, both past and present, have taken to Twitter to do so today:

The show of support for this worthy cause extends far beyond the Calgary Flames present players though, with celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Justin Bieber reaching out to their vast list of followers to start the conversation.

Beyond the campaign being driven by Bell, the Calgary Flames donate plenty of time, money and effort to the mental health awareness cause, hosting a Hockey Talks game, aimed at getting the wider Calgary Flames and hockey community talking.

That game for the Calgary Flames will be hosted on February 2nd against the Winnipeg Jets, with the hope that the ‘Hockey Talks’ hashtag can have just as much far reaching appeal as the ‘Let’s Talk’ one.

As quoted on the Calgary Flames website, depression is not a small issue:

"One-in-five Canadians will experience a mental health problem or illness in their lifetime; it indirectly affects all Canadians at some point through a family member, friend or colleague."

Whilst the bandwagon isn’t always the best place to be, in this case we feel proud to see the Calgary Flames getting on the bandwagon and doing their part as sporting stars to raise awareness.

Huge respect to both the Calgary Flames and hockey community at large for coming out en masse in support.

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Bell Let’s Talk Day 2015 set new records, with 122,150,772 interactions and an increase in Bell’s donation of $6,107,538.60. Do your part this year by joining the Calgary Flames in supporting the #BellLetsTalk hashtag on Twitter.