Mental Health Week Initiative Breaks World Record

Posted on: 02 November 2011

A Guinness World Record was broken by 953 students who turned out to show their support for Mental Health Week by contributing a line to a story.  The group successfully took the Guinness World Record for ‘the most amount of people to write a story’.  Organised by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union, the Union of Students in Ireland, along with organisations See Change and Fighting Words, the event aimed to reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues by highlighting that mental health is part of everyone’s story. 

The President of Trinity College Dublin’s Students Union Ryan Bartlett said: “It is fantastic for the College to break this world record, especially considering it involved a joint effort with colleagues and organisations around Dublin.  The broad range of people taking part in this is indicative of the message: mental health is part of everyone’s story; regardless of who you are, regardless of how your mental health is, it is a part of you and your story.  The event has been a massive success because it got everyone talking about mental health and has started to dismantle the stigma attached to it.”

The organisers of the event set up a marquee in Trinity’s Physics Square where ushers gathered students who were willing to write their line of the story. The event formed part of Trinity’s Students Union Mental Health Week initiative which ran from October 24th to 28th last with the theme ‘mental health is part of everybody’s story’.  The organisers efforts resulted in hundreds of students being exposed to an important message about mental health.  The collaborators plan to work together in the future to continue raising awareness for mental health issues.