Mental Health Awareness Has Gone Mainstream. Now What?

Beyond the Label wants Singapore to stop just talking about mental health and start doing something about it, starting with a "half step."

When Julius Tan Soo Ren came out of hospital, he faced a choice many people will recognise. He could invent an excuse for his absence, or he could tell his employer the truth.

The 40-year-old biomedical technician had struggled with depression for years before a bipolar disorder diagnosis in 2023. He chose honesty, and asked for the support he needed to keep contributing. His manager and colleagues backed him, even allowing a six-month mental health break. Today, he says he can pace himself better and works in a healthier, more productive state.

Julius's story is the kind that Beyond the Label (BTL), Singapore's national campaign against mental health stigma, wants to see more of. It is also the kind that awareness alone rarely produces.

Beyond the slogan

Started in 2018 by the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), BTL has now entered its third phase. The shift is a candid one: after years of getting Singaporeans to talk about mental health, the movement says the harder work is turning that conversation into skills people can use.

The need is not hypothetical. NCSS's 2025 Quality of Life Study, which surveyed about 6,700 adults, found that 26% reported mild depressive or anxiety symptoms, 19% moderate symptoms and 7% severe symptoms. Mental health, in other words, is a spectrum, and most of us sit somewhere on it. NCSS's analysis also found that family and peers can play an important role in nudging people towards help. The people best placed to make a difference, it seems, are the ones already around us.

That thinking shapes BTL's next moves. Seniors will be trained as "kampung chiefs" to build peer support in their neighbourhoods, with art and music used to get conversations started. Caregivers of children and youth will learn to spot early signs of distress, while those caught in the "sandwiched" middle, looking after both ageing parents and children, will get bite-sized strategies to head off burnout. Youths going through major transitions can sign up for in-depth peer support training or practise the basics at roadshows.

Ground-up efforts under the Well-Being Circles programme are also growing. A new initiative, SibsUnite, is aimed at siblings of individuals with special needs, who are often overlooked. Meanwhile, student groups are exploring campaigns on emerging youth issues, including hikikomori, or social withdrawal.

When the haze rolled in

Even the best plans meet the weather. BTL Fest 2026 was cancelled because of the ongoing haze, leaving the campaign without its centrepiece event. Its answer was to move online. The BTL Mini-Series ran daily on YouTube from 28 October to 1 November, with Joakim Gomez hosting five 20-minute episodes, each built around one of the five senses. The format is clever: instead of lecturing viewers about wellness, it hands them one small thing to try.

BTL calls this the "half step", and it is the most compelling idea in the campaign. The first episode asks viewers to take a few slow breaths, then check in on someone with a simple "How are you?" Another has families building BRAVE mini blocks together, a reminder that doing something with your hands can create room to slow down. In a matcha-making session, ambassador Jesslyn Ng and TOUCH Community Services' Samantha Wong suggest noticing the scent and taste of your next cup instead of gulping it down on autopilot, then maybe making one for someone else.

Jesslyn, 37, knows the territory. An educator since 2013, she found that work pressure was wearing down her well-being, and returned to the crafting she had loved since childhood. That became Crafty Summer, where she now runs workshops that teach children and adults to embrace imperfection and enjoy the process. In the episode, she reflects on her recovery and return to work.

The remaining episodes keep the senses theme going. A guided art session invites viewers to find one quietly beautiful thing around them and photograph or sketch it, with a reminder that you needn't be "artistic" to take part. The finale, with performers 53A and Benjamin Hum recalling their school days, the labels they picked up and the songs that got them through, ends by asking viewers to notice three sounds, then share a song with someone who might need it.

None of it is dramatic, and that is rather the point.

What the numbers say, and don't

BTL's own FY2025 evaluation, based on 2,087 programme participants, offers encouragement. Awareness of mental health support and resources rose to 94.1% from 92.3%. Willingness to hire persons with mental health conditions jumped to 69.5% from 42.3%.

That last figure deserves some care. It had stood at 77.8% in FY2023 before sliding, so the recovery is welcome but not unprecedented. Other indicators moved the wrong way. Awareness of mental health conditions slipped to 52.5% from 55.7%. Positive attitudes towards persons with mental health conditions fell to 64.3% from 68.6%, and willingness to seek help eased from 87.7% to 83.7%.

The picture is mixed: people increasingly know where to find help, but knowing is not the same as feeling comfortable using it. That gap, between what people know and what they do, is where BTL's pivot to skills-building makes sense.

The campaign's reach is considerable. In FY2025, it held 116 engagements, across 42 schools, 40 corporate settings and 34 communities, reaching more than 67,600 people.

"Beyond the Label is not a once-a-year conversation," said James Tan, CEO of TOUCH Community Services, which co-leads the movement. NCSS CEO Lim Shung Yar framed the shift more bluntly: inclusion, he said, is built through what we do, not just what we know.

The takeaway

BTL's message is that you don't need to be a counsellor, or have a spare weekend, to make a difference. It can start with a few slow breaths, an unhurried cup of tea, or a text to a friend who's been quiet lately.

The full mini-series is still available on YouTube and the BTL microsite. For updates, follow @beyondthelabelsg on Instagram and Facebook, and for mental health resources and services, visit mindline.sg.

I kept every fact and figure to what's in the release, but the framing around the data (the "gap between knowing and doing") is editorial interpretation. Adjust it if it doesn't match your view. I can also tighten it to around 500 words or add a sharper opening if you'd like.