Mental Health Acceptance - who helped you?

hazel22 · ‎21-07-2013

To support our MIND campaign, buy a community crowdsourced T-shirt here

One of the things that I admire about the giffgaff community is the incredible support members receive through their ups and downs in life. From nerves about interviews, new jobs, babies, moving house, new love, wedding anniversaries - and then more sobering (I won't link to these), break ups, bad accidents, jobs lost, members of family passing and all the confused feelings that come with these.

When I was having a rough time of it last year, it was friends (one in particular), my parents and our community that kept me going, and looking back I wish I'd known to seek help from places like Mind.

ChariTEE

We're one week into our Mind charity campaign where we're asking members to reserve a T-shirt (£17)

to raise money for Mind,
to hit 100 reservations which will allow everyone to get the T-shirt they want,
also make your community member rachael125's design a reality.

We've reached 33 out of 100 reserved which is brilliant and need to keep going! After having 70 design submissions and 800 votes for the winner (logo pictured left, isn't it great?), it's been brilliant to see the support flood in for this community proposed, designed, voted and now promoted campaign - completely led by the community start to finish.

We're trying to promote Mental Health Acceptance with our community led campaign ChariTEE and starting this conversation.So. Who helped you?

To support our MIND campaign, buy a community crowdsourced T-shirt here

You can find an FAQ below in the spoiler.

Click to reveal

Where can I buy a t-shirt?

As you may know giffgaff has chosen to sell the t-shirts through teespring.com as this allows us to pay no upfront costs, they take care of all deliveries and 100% of our profit can go directly to our charity MIND. Teespring have given us our very own url link which you can use to buy a t-shirt. If you would like to go that step further to help raise money for MIND then you can use this link to spread the word of ChariTee and help sell as many t-shirts as possible.

How much do they cost?

Each t-shirt is priced at $15 (£10.11) each. Please bear in mind the delivery cost for one t-shirt is $10.50 (£7.08) and $1 (67p) if you order an additional t-shirt. In all that's £17 for a good quality t-shirt to raise money for a great charity MIND. T-shirts will be delivered 21 days after the campaign ends.

What is the target of sales?

Teespring works by only charging customers and delivering the t-shirts if you reach your target of sales. We have set the target at 100 t-shirts in 30 days. If we don't reach the target members will not be charged and will not be sent a t-shirt. We aim to get here with the help of all of you lovely members out there

What if we exceed our target?

If we do that's great, we can keep going and sell as many t-shirts as we like

Sizing Guide

Can you get female sizes as well as male?

Yes you can Just click 'buy it' and request your style.

The postage and packaging only states $3.85 for Paypal?

"So, when checking the amount, be sure to change the country on the left-hand side for the shipping estimates to be correct. The default is the United States and by changing the delivery to the UK, the price goes up, understandably. The button looks like this:

I did some checking and this is what I got for prices for various quantities:

1 Shirt + Shipping to UK = $25.50 (using xe.com to convert = ~£16.90)

2 Shirts + Shipping to UK = $41.50 (using xe.com to convert = ~£27.47)

3 Shirts + Shipping to UK = $57.50 (using xe.com to convert = ~£38.06)

4 Shirts + Shipping to UK = $73.50 (using xe.com to convert = ~£48.66)

Hope this helps. "

Why are you using an American company?

We did look for a UK company which would provide the same service as Teespring, but there isn't one. Buying the T-shirts outright is expensive, lenghty (all the manual packing and posting by the community team), and not fun or different. Teespring was suggested to us by a member, so we want to keep this community inspired. First class postage in the UK is £3 + £1.50 for packaging, so it's an extra £2.38 to get this T-shirt from the US, we're sorry if this discourages anyone from taking part.

The MIND Logo

MIND Charity very graciously gave us permission to use their logo, (thanks guys) however this does not mean we speak for them, or that they endorse giffgaff or our policies.

Where can I buy a t-shirt? As you may know giffgaff has chosen to sell the t-shirts through teespring.com as this allows us to pay no upfront costs, they take care of all deliveries and 100% of our profit can go directly to our charity MIND. Teespring have given us our very own url link which you can use to buy a t-shirt. If you would like to go that step further to help raise money for MIND then you can use this link to spread the word of ChariTee and help sell as many t-shirts as possible. How much do they cost? Each t-shirt is priced at $15 (£10.11) each. Please bear in mind the delivery cost for one t-shirt is $10.50 (£7.08) and $1 (67p) if you order an additional t-shirt. In all that's £17 for a good quality t-shirt to raise money for a great charity MIND. T-shirts will be delivered 21 days after the campaign ends. What is the target of sales? Teespring works by only charging customers and delivering the t-shirts if you reach your target of sales. We have set the target at 100 t-shirts in 30 days. If we don't reach the target members will not be charged and will not be sent a t-shirt. We aim to get here with the help of all of you lovely members out there

What if we exceed our target? If we do that's great, we can keep going and sell as many t-shirts as we like

Sizing Guide Can you get female sizes as well as male? Yes you can

Just click 'buy it' and request your style. The postage and packaging only states $3.85 for Paypal? "So, when checking the amount, be sure to change the country on the left-hand side for the shipping estimates to be correct. The default is the United States and by changing the delivery to the UK, the price goes up, understandably. The button looks like this: I did some checking and this is what I got for prices for various quantities: 1 Shirt + Shipping to UK = $25.50 (using xe.com to convert = ~£16.90) 2 Shirts + Shipping to UK = $41.50 (using xe.com to convert = ~£27.47) 3 Shirts + Shipping to UK = $57.50 (using xe.com to convert = ~£38.06) 4 Shirts + Shipping to UK = $73.50 (using xe.com to convert = ~£48.66) Hope this helps. " Why are you using an American company? We did look for a UK company which would provide the same service as Teespring, but there isn't one. Buying the T-shirts outright is expensive, lenghty (all the manual packing and posting by the community team), and not fun or different. Teespring was suggested to us by a member, so we want to keep this community inspired. First class postage in the UK is £3 + £1.50 for packaging, so it's an extra £2.38 to get this T-shirt from the US, we're sorry if this discourages anyone from taking part. The MIND Logo MIND Charity very graciously gave us permission to use their logo, (thanks guys) however this does not mean we speak for them, or that they endorse giffgaff or our policies.

zoeawesome · ‎21-07-2013

I totally agree, the giffgaff community is extremely supportive, I remember in May when I posted my M.E/Fibro awareness video thread, the support from members as well as staff was overwhelming, amazing. A invisible illness, mostly physical, but I'm very happy to see so much support for mental health too, I've seen a few anxiety or depression help threads around lately, just not been in the place to contribute, even though said illness have been a large part of my life for over five years now. Its so important to talk about it, be open, treat mental health like physical, normalise it, 1 in 4 afterall.

Even if you have a negative experience disclosing a mental illness say for example in education or in the workplace, or even let down by the nhs mental health service (supposable due to low funding... pfft) there will always be atleast a few people in your life who will be able to relate and empathise, if not in person then a supportive online community such as this one, or ofcourse MIND.

Like Hazel, I'm blown away frequently by how supportive this community is, especially lately with the mental health threads that have been emerging, proud to be part of this community and keep working towards normalising mental health difficulties, we're all human, 1 in 4

zoeawesome · ‎21-07-2013

philiplittle40 · ‎21-07-2013

Will never forget the support I received when my then wife was seriously ill in ICU for 6 weeks. Hazel and Bertie really stepped up to the mark and helped through an incredibly stressful time at all hours. Nice to have another chance to say thank you

falling_x · ‎21-07-2013

This is fantastic... Mind are a great charity, and giffgaff? Well I haven't had much experience with gg and other issues/problems... Whatever you want to call them. So thank you

mary_r_t · ‎21-07-2013

I suffer from bipolar disorder. I've had symptoms for around half my life now and was diagnosed when I was 20. The last few years have been incredibly tough for me. I have been very unstable, unable to work and unable to finish the PhD I started in 2007. I've also had 2 lengthy hospital admissions while I've been a member of this great community. In many ways it has been the members of this community that have kept me going of late. I do have a lot of professional support (and I'm on a cocktail of meds to boot :-P) - but there is nothing quite like having a small army of friends around you (even if some are virtually).

In 2010 the community offered me support here http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute-Innovation-Promotion/Get-well-soon-mary-r-t/m-p/120034/h...

and while I was in hospital over the winter (for a whole 11 weeks) I received a lot of support from community members (you all know who you are).

The most recent support I was given from this wonderful community was when my mum passed away http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Social-Off-Topic/To-Mary-our-thought-are-with-you-and-the-family/td... - which was so important to me given that I am still in recovery from being acutely unwell.

I have actively supported MIND by writing a series of blogs for them. As one of the 1 in 4 who suffer from a mental health problem I see talking about it as the most important thing at the moment. Mental Health can't be the 'elephant in the room' any more. Just because you can't see the daily struggle we have doesn't make it any less real - in fact in some ways it makes it harder because we don't have as many analogies to pull on to describe how we are feeling - and how we are feeling causes real problems for us - whether that being stuck in the house because of anxiety, neglecting ourselves because of apathy or planning our lives around our symptoms and what we can manage and when.

My partner, oldyorkie, has been incredibly important to me of late - keeping me on an even keel - because support is vitally important to those of us who suffer from a mental health problem, just as, if not more, important than any of the other treatment available.

brulaw · ‎21-07-2013

@ Hazel .......... Excellent post .... Thank you ,

@ Mary ........... Brilliant comments extremely well expressed ,

Whenever there are topics about " What keeps you at giffgaff " ( and similar threads ) , for me one of the first things that jumps into my MIND is the fantastic community that makes this network so different and so addictive , I have been helped by this community in many ways , and I like to think that in return I have made a useful contribution .

So ...... Congratulations to giffgaff for their support of MIND and for bringing this exceptional community to life ,

And to the members of this community ........... Thank You .......... For making it all that it is .

oldyorkie · ‎21-07-2013

Support can be offered in so many different ways.... One of the biggest contributors is the ability to listen - but not with a sympathetic ear as much as empathetic. The strong belief of giffgaff and its members in supporting those who are suffering in whatever way in its true sense is amazing and can't be applauded enough. I really do hope the target of 100 tshirts is met and surpassed. Well done gg (that's everybody) in raising awareness and supporting all charities, but in particular for raising the awareness of MIND

seang · ‎21-07-2013

A very worthy cause indeed.

minacandy · ‎22-07-2013

Aww this is nice - i've enjoyed reading this thread. It didn't really occur to me to post in here about mental health stuff and that it might be supportive. Maybe i will some time soon!

m

emi_angel · ‎22-07-2013

I am really pleased I stumbled across this thread by accident. Glad that the Giff-Gaff community are encouraging people to talk openly about Mental Health & love the support for MIND. I can't wait to get my t-Shirt and wear it with pride!

As someone who suffers with Emotionaly Unstable Borderline Personality Disorder, I sometimes struggle with my diagnosis. My husband has been wonderfull over this last 1 year as he has had a lot to cope with. My thoughts and love to my fellow Giff-Gaffers who are going through similair issues. Together we can make a difference!