The Huntsman family donated $150 million in 2019 to create the Huntsman Mental Health Institute. The Institute provides education through their school of medicine, research into mental health, and treatment to those in need of mental health care in the Salt Lake Valley.
The Institute recently provided the lead contribution of $15 million to the Ad Council’s mental health initiative.
Christena Huntsman Durham is Vice President of the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation. "We have a partnership with the Ad Council that we hope will last a very long time," she said. "We're committed over the next seven years, to do advertising with them, that will really, hopefully change the way we look at each other with mental health, about mental health.”
The initiative seeks to address the mental health crisis in the U.S. by uniting brands, marketers, media companies and nonprofits in order to provide support and address stigma surrounding mental health. David Huntsman, President of the Foundation, says the primary goal of the campaign is to eliminate stigma.
“Stigma is just another word for prejudice and ignorance, and there's too much of that directed toward people who suffer from mental health,” Huntsman said.
The campaign is seeking to take a more proactive approach to mental health, incorporating a healthy mental state into daily life.
“We want, ultimately, for people that are suffering from mental health to feel like it's no different from any other health issue that they address that they that they experience," Huntsman explained. "Their mental health is just part of their overall health. It's not some side category that they need to be embarrassed or ashamed about, it's not something to keep a secret."
For more information on the Huntsman Mental Health Institute visit https://healthcare.utah.edu/hmhi/ and for the Ad Council campaign visit adcouncil.org.
