Tumblr's new mental health initiative provides tools and support during coronavirus pandemic

Tumblr is launching a mental health initiative to help provide its community with resources and support during the new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).

The social platform is partnering with anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label to create content to support people's mental and emotional wellbeing during the current global crisis.

Throughout Mental Health Awareness Month, which runs throughout May, Tumblr users will be able to make use of resources and participate in conversations surrounding four key topics pertaining to isolation. Those include maintaining, protecting, and improving mental health, coping with grief, managing relationships inside and outside of your household, and combatting boredom.

Those resources and conversations will take place throughout May on the website for Post it Forward, Tumblr's campaign to "counter the stigmas around mental and emotional health through community-building and conversation."

Ditch the Label and Tumblr will be publishing 25 articles on mental health topics including "Ways to reduce stress during lockdown" and "How to deal with your emotions during the coronavirus crisis." They will share original artwork relating to mental wellbeing, and will host Q&A sessions dubbed Answer Times for community members to participate in.

"Tumblr has always been on the front lines of supporting and advocating for mental health through programs like World Wide What and Post it Forward and this Mental Health Awareness Month is no different," Victoria McCullough, director of social impact and public policy at Tumblr, told Mashable.

"We're really excited today to launch a partnership with Ditch The Label to provide the content and tools needed to ensure our community has the resources to protect their mental well-being," McCullough added. "Now more than ever, with people all over the world combating things that impact overall mental health like isolation, boredom, and grief, we wanted to be there for our community in a meaningful way." 

In a blog post, Tumblr explained the reasons behind launching this initiative and posted a list of free counselling services located around the world. "Because of the coronavirus, people all around the world are experiencing high levels of mental and emotional stress," the blog post begins. "Some of you may be concerned with your mental health for the first time in your life. For others, existing mental health issues may be exacerbated by current events — especially for those of you who may be quarantined with people whose values are at odds with your own. We see you, and we want to help."

All posts will be tagged "cw mental health month" in addition to more specific tags where appropriate. If you don't wish to see this content, you can use Tumblr's tag filtering tool to remove the posts from your dashboard.

Tumblr is asking its Creatrs to produce five original pieces of artwork as part of the initiative. Post it Forward will be posting the original art from Tumblr @creatrs, and reblogging content from Ditch the Label and the rest of the Tumblr community.

Here is one of the illustrations created by Jennifer Xiao.

Credit: Jennifer Xiao

To participate in Tumblr's mental health initiative, visit Post it Forward.