#ChangeThePicture: Raising awareness of men's mental health via Instagram

A new Instagram campaign was launched on International Men's Day (Sunday November 19th) to help challenge perceptions of how men should look and feel to raise awareness of male mental health issues.

Men are being encouraged to post photos of themselves with the hashtag #ChangeThePicture, which is the name of the campaign from the Dentsu Aegis Network and the male suicide prevention charity Calm (Campaign Against Living Miserably).

The campaign has launched with 12 images of men and honest comments about their mental health to demonstrate that people can't always tell from the way a man looks that they may be struggling with their mental wellbeing.

Simon Gunning, chief executive of Calm, commented: "#ChangeThePicture is our chance to look at things differently and help rid our society of all the pressures men feel to be and act a certain way."

Calm hopes that more Instagram users will be inspired by the campaign to come forward and talk openly about their own mental health via the platform.