Intu Properties : to get visitors chatting about mental health on Time to Talk Day

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Press Release / 04 February 2020

intu will be encouraging its visitors to stop and chat for Time to Talk Day (Thursday 6 February) as part of the national campaign to start conversations around mental health.

New seating areas at intu's popular destinations will be turned into 'Chatty Chairs' where visitors can speak to each other or a charity about mental health.

Mind and The Samaritans are among organisations to have joined forces with intu for the initiative on Time to Talk Day, which encourages everyone to be more open about mental health. Representatives from the charities will meet with intu's visitors and staff to raise awareness about anxiety, depression and other conditions and talk to them about their own experiences.

The initiative is being launched at intu centres nationwide under intu's strategy to raise awareness of mental health among its visitors and staff and following successful trials for Chatty Chairs at intu Metrocentre, intu Eldon Square and intu Braehead last year.

The Chatty Chairs areas will host other mental health events during 2020 and remain on the malls throughout the year to encourage more conversations between visitors.

Amanda Campbell, corporate affairs and sustainability director at intu, said: 'This forms part of our commitment to reducing the stigma around mental health and encouraging more open and honest conversations around mental health and wellbeing.

'intu destinations sit at the heart of communities and reach more than half the UK's population and so it is important that we support causes that really matter to our visitors and provide destinations that are truly accessible and welcoming for all. Working with important organisations on initiatives such as Chatty Chairs is one way we feel that we can make a real difference to the million people a day who visit our centres.'

In December, intu's chief executive Matthew Roberts signed The Time to Change pledge, a growing social movement run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness to transform attitudes to mental health in the workplace.