White January: find out more about the campaign

Find out everything about White January – mental health month – and join this cause!

It is not new that awareness campaigns for various diseases throughout the year have become increasingly popular.

In addition to the famous Pink October and Blue November, each month has a characteristic campaign aimed at raising awareness among the population about a certain disease and/or cause.

As we have just entered a new year, over the months we will be bringing you special content about each of these campaigns. And to start, we will talk about the January campaign, which is focused on mental health.

In today's material, the themes will be divided into topics, and will cover the following subjects:

• The color campaigns
• White January and the campaign for mental health
• The importance of mental health today
• Conclusion

The color campaigns

It's very unlikely that you don't know what I'm talking about. Whether through communication channels or social media, color campaigns – which permeate the entire year – have been gaining more and more space in the lives of Brazilians.

With the campaigns of Pink October (about breast cancer) and Blue November (about prostate cancer) leading in terms of popularity, in recent years other colors have also begun to receive more prominence, increasingly drawing the attention of the general public to the causes defended.

Among those that have grown the most in recent times are the campaigns of Yellow September (suicide prevention) and Red December (AIDS awareness).

In addition to raising awareness of various diseases – in addition to those mentioned, there are also campaigns to raise awareness of lupus, anemia and hepatitis – there are also other campaigns that, unlike these, do not have a direct connection with health, but have a direct effect on promoting life.

Among them, the ones that stand out the most are Green April (in favor of safety at work) and Yellow May (promoting awareness and combating traffic accidents).

Even though they are different themes, all campaigns throughout the year fight for a common cause: the health and well-being of the population.

In addition to these, the January campaign has also been standing out and generating more debates about its importance. We are talking about White January, the month dedicated to mental health.

White January and the campaign for mental health

An increasingly recurring topic in our society today is mental health.

Despite being a very important topic that deserves all the attention, for many years the subject was treated with disregard.

This has directly contributed to minimizing the direct effects of mental health on our society.

Created in 2014, the White January campaign was conceived by Brazilians and aims to draw society's attention to issues surrounding mental health.

Acting as an important “spokesperson” for the cause, one of the campaign’s objectives is to highlight the importance of preventing mental illness, signaling the worrying impacts that these illnesses can have on our lives and, consequently, on our society.

And the choice of January to “host” the campaign was not by chance. In the first month of the year, thanks to the feeling of “new year, new opportunities”, people are more likely to think about these aspects of life, and to take topics such as emotions and existential questions more seriously.

Driven by these feelings, January was chosen to be the flagship of such an important campaign. Throughout the month, several health institutions promote a series of events on the topic.

There are lectures, workshops, debates and several other actions to raise awareness about mental health. All of them are designed to invite participants to take their health – mental and emotional – more seriously, not only in January, but throughout the year.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and measures to combat the virus, many of these events are taking place online, making it easier for the public to participate.

Another very important point in the fight for White January is raising awareness about mental health among public bodies.

The campaign seeks to draw the attention of the responsible authorities to the issue, highlighting that mental health must also be treated as a public policy and that government entities need to assume their role in this fight and contribute to the promotion of mental health in all sectors of society and all the people who are part of it.

The importance of mental health today

For many years, mental health was a topic that was almost completely ignored by most of society in general.

This has caused rates of related illnesses – such as depression and anxiety – to become increasingly frequent among the population.

But, with the topic of “mental health” being practically neglected, people who suffered from these illnesses often did not even seek the correct treatments, as the topic was not discussed as much.

Fortunately, this scenario has changed a lot in recent years. With routines involving studies, work and social life, the population is opening its eyes to diseases that go beyond the physical state and realizing that maintaining mental health is just as important as carrying out a routine check-up, for example.

And the good news is that the latest generations are excellent allies in this fight, and are helping to take the issue more and more seriously, ensuring that mental health receives the visibility and importance it deserves.

Conclusion

As you can see, the White January campaign deserves as much attention as its “more famous sisters” Pink October and Blue November.

Even though they are different areas – since we are talking about physical and mental health – it is important that our entire body functions well and in sync. After all, as the old saying goes: “a healthy mind, a healthy body”.

And by highlighting the issue, the campaign works as a collective and, at the same time, individual invitation.

Did you like this content? Then take the opportunity to read it too Resilience at work – 8 tips to develop it

Nathalia Silva January 12, 2022