Hear Me Out

Conversations for Change

Find the words with us!

We at Hear Me Out have one goal; get people talking to each other about mental health- literally. A text message, a "how are you", a fun fact... the thing about the power of conversations is that anyone can have them; books, paid lesson plans, classrooms, etc., all can help, but all you really need is your own experience and community. We hope social media is only the start of our campaign. What we really want is to be a stepping stool for someone to talk to a friend, a parent, a classmate, because those seemingly mundane discussions is where minds are reshaped.

Stigma has stifled this power by taking away the words we need to talk about mental health. Through our campaign, we're going to bring these words back, and reconnect our capability to impact, by....

Education

Our campaign challenges common myths about mental health and introduces new facts so everyone has the foundation for accurate, empathetic dialogue.

Direction

Stigma not only prevents us from knowing what to talk about, but how to talk about it. After setting the foundation, we discuss how to use these tools.

Here's what's for sure; conversations work.

Personal stories are 22 times more likely to be remembered than faceless facts.

Conversations stimulate more neural activity than passively consuming information.

Discussions over simple advice giving makes people more likely to seek help 80% of the time.

The facts are clear-- we don't need anything fancy. Just talking about mental health is one of the most important and effective educational and motivating tools to help people understand diverse experiences, how to support others, and know when and where to seek help. However, they can't have impact if they can't be started.

Stigma silences.

Let's look at a few numbers:

1 out of 4 people say they don't feel comfortable talking about their mental health.
79% of people with mental health conditions have faced discrimination while facing treatment.
35% of people say knowing someone has a mental health condition would make them see them differently.

Stigma is the wall that blocks the conversations that drive understanding and recovery. By showing mental health should be hidden, be ashamed of, discussions die before they even begin. This is why we need a radical redirection, and we can work together to relearn what we know about mental health from a discussion-first mindset.