Beyond the Label calls on Singaporeans to turn mental health awareness into everyday action

As conversations about mental health become more common, the Beyond The Label (BTL) Collective has expanded efforts to foster greater understanding about mental health, equip Singaporeans with practical tools for everyday support and build more inclusive communities where persons with mental health conditions feel supported and accepted.

Beyond the Label

With the transition into BTL 3.0 this year, the BTL movement has shifted its focus beyond building awareness into taking real action. Comprising partners from the public, private and people sectors, the BTL Collective’s efforts will go beyond education to focus on equipping individuals and communities with the necessary skills to maintain mental wellness and strengthen everyday well-being.

From awareness to everyday action

Singapore’s National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy recognises that mental health needs exist along a continuum, with different levels of support provided through its Tiered Care Model. This reinforces the importance of recognising and responding to mental health needs early, with support appropriate to the level of need. NCSS’ 2025 Quality of Life Study found that mental health needs exist across a spectrum. Among some 6,700 respondents aged 18 and above, 26% experienced mild depressive or anxiety symptoms, 19% experienced moderate symptoms and 7% experienced severe symptoms. Further analysis by NCSS also found that family and peers could play an important role in encouraging people to seek support, highlighting how everyday actions and conversations can support help-seeking and mental wellbeing.

As conversations about mental health become more common, BTL’s focus is increasingly on helping individuals and communities translate awareness into everyday actions that support mental wellbeing and inclusion.

Championing mental health in the community

The BTL Collective will be rolling out several initiatives to boost mental health literacy and support among a wide range of audiences, including seniors, caregivers, children and youths.

Increasing the mental health literacy rate and help-seeking behaviours among seniors through engaging, creative activities like art and music. To foster a culture of peer support among seniors by training seniors to be “kampung chiefs” to champion community care.
Equipping caregivers of children and youth with communication skills and the ability to detect early signs of mental health distress, and providing sandwiched caregivers – those caring for both ageing parents and children – with practical, bite-sized self-care strategies to prevent caregiving burnout.
Developing peer support skills in youths during major transitions through a two-tiered approach: providing in-depth training for those looking to develop their peer support skills, as well as general outreach through road shows where youths can practise their skills while building broader mental health literacy.

Ground-up initiatives remain a core focus for Well-Being Circles (WBC), driven by two dedicated tracks:

Community-Based Track: Introducing a new WBC initiative, SibsUnite, tailored to support siblings of individuals with special needs.
Student-Led Track: Currently engaging with two to three student groups interested in launching youth-centric mental health campaigns, including raising awareness about hikikomori (social withdrawal) and other emerging youth challenges.

Bringing everyday mental wellness online with The BTL Mini-Series

While the physical BTL Fest 2026 will no longer take place due to the ongoing haze situation, BTL’s efforts to support the community continue beyond any single event or format. Recognising that people may engage with mental wellness in different ways, BTL will bring this year’s public campaign online through The BTL Mini-Series, making practical mental wellness guidance and conversations accessible to people wherever they are. The mini-series premieres daily on YouTube at 7.30pm, 28 October to 1 November.

Hosted by Joakim Gomez, the five-episode digital series continues this year’s theme, “Mental Wellness Begins With All Of Us”, by exploring simple ways people can care for their own mental wellbeing and support those around them. Each 20-minute episode is built around the five senses and the experiences of different groups in the community, from parents and caregivers to working adults and students.

Rather than asking viewers to make big changes, each episode introduces a simple “half step” that can be tried wherever they are – whether it is taking a few slow breaths, checking in on someone, spending a few minutes engaging with a hands-on activity, noticing something in their surroundings, slowing down over a familiar drink, or using music as a way to pause and reconnect.

Through conversations, guided activities and lived experiences, The BTL Mini-Series aims to make caring for mental wellness feel approachable and relevant to everyday life. Viewers can access the full episodes online, allowing them to revisit the practical takeaways in their own time and share them with family, friends or colleagues. Full episodes will be available on YouTube and the BTL microsite, with shorter content shared across BTL’s social channels.

Key findings from BTL Financial Year (FY) 2025 Evaluation Survey

An evaluation of BTL’s efforts in Financial Year 2025 found that the initiative made encouraging progress towards its intended mental health knowledge, attitudes and supportive behavioural outcomes. A post-participation survey was completed by 2,087 people who attended one or more BTL programmes to measure BTL’s effectiveness. The key findings include:

Awareness of mental health support and resources increased to 94.1% of participants in FY2025 from 92.3% in FY2024
Willingness to hire persons with mental health conditions increased to 69.5% of participants in FY2025 from 42.3% in FY2024

The BTL Collective also ramped up its engagement efforts islandwide to reach specific sub-populations of interest, including students, educators, employers and the public. Engagement formats ranged from educational booths and roadshows to roving exhibitions, and to campus activation initiatives. In FY2025, the BTL Collective conducted over 116 engagements and reached over 67,603 individuals across:

42 school engagements
40 corporate engagements
34 community engagements

“Beyond the Label is not a once-a-year conversation. Throughout the year, we have been bringing mental health conversations into schools, workplaces and communities, creating more opportunities for people to understand mental health, know where support is available and play a part in building more inclusive environments,” said James Tan, Chief Executive Officer, TOUCH Community Services. “The encouraging shifts we are seeing – from greater awareness of mental health support to a stronger willingness to hire persons with mental health conditions – show that sustained engagement can help move people from awareness towards action. BTL brings these efforts together in one shared space, but the work continues beyond The BTL Mini-Series as we keep building communities where people feel seen, included and supported.”

“Beyond the Label goes beyond raising awareness. It is about helping people turn understanding into action, whether by supporting someone around them, seeking help early, or creating more inclusive environments. We want to equip individuals, communities and workplaces with the skills and confidence to take these everyday actions, because inclusion is built through what we do, not just what we know. Through BTL, we will continue bringing partners together so that greater understanding leads to lasting change”, said Mr Lim Shung Yar, Chief Executive Officer of NCSS.

In FY2026, the BTL Collective will continue to enhance its outreach and engagement efforts to strengthen the population’s mental health, including through skills-building initiatives to equip participants with practical skills for self-care and peer support.

Importantly, BTL’s broader network of mental health resources and support remains available beyond the campaign.

For the latest updates, follow @beyondthelabelsg on Instagram and Facebook. For mental health resources and services, visit mindline.sg.

It’s the weekend and are you looking for things / activities to do? Check out our weekly roundup of things to do this weekend.