This month has been Mental Health Awareness month – which means we’ve been paying special attention to data that matters in this space. If you know us, you know that we always start with the numbers so that we can learn where to dive deeper and unpack the ‘why’.
This month, we dug into data around mental health and relationships. What we found was both promising and heartbreaking. But unless we acknowledge the facts, we can’t work to make positive change.
97% of Hinge users want to date someone who actively cares for their mental health – GDI, 2021 80% of people with mental health problems say it affects their relationships including loss of libido, feeling unattractive, and self consciousness – Nemours, 2023 Yet 9 out of 10 people dealing with mental health problems say stigma and discrimination have a negative impact on their lives – Mentalhealth.org, 2021
Please speak up about these issues. Do not stigmatize how serious mental health issues are and the impacts they have on our lives. Now is the time.
Looking for more data that matters? Check out our Instagram.
A Wider Lens Our PinPoint team is all in on perspective-taking. As designers and researchers, we see first hand the impact of keeping our lens wide. Really wide. We strive to listen to and understand the everyday oh-nos and ah-has that make-up our unique worlds. This month, we heard families describe how brands can support their efforts to keep their kids safe. We noticed conversations about generational differences and started to wonder just how big those differences actually are.
Perspective-taking takes practice. Time and time again, nuanced outlooks which deserve more airtime catch our attention. Perspective-taking is rarely (never!) easy. But, we’ve learned the value of making time to deliberately reframe our lenses. Wide lenses – the ones that point to diverse contexts and under-represented backstories – reveal more meaningful, satisfying, and exciting insights. Those insights keep us motivated to constantly look for opportunities for positive change.
A Wider Lens on Mental Health October especially encouraged – scratch that, challenged – our perspective-taking about mental health. October 10th marked World Mental Health Day. The World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) promoted ‘mental health is a universal right’ as the day’s theme. The United Nations coordinated a month’s worth of events to motivate workplaces to prioritize mental health issues.
From every lens we look through, mental health matters year round. Our shared struggle to normalize just how transparent we can be about mental health is ongoing. Rightfully so too. There are so many perspectives to consider about what ‘counts’ as mental health. For some people, mental health shows up in their surroundings. They want to feel connected to their external environments. Others connect mental health to wellbeing or wellness. The relationship between mental and physical health motivates their lifestyle decisions. Others still see mental health as a hyped obsession. They advocate for a total attitude overhaul about what real health looks & feels like, not to mention who gets to benefit from mental health resources.
Crisis into Collision One common thread lurks behind these varied perspectives: the new realities brought on by a crisis pile-up are colliding. Climate crisis. Economic crisis. Geopolitical crisis. The quantity and intensity of stressors just keeps building. When everything is at a heavy impasse, a collision of crises feels explosive.
As a female-led team, we are increasingly asking about how this crisis collison will play out. Women make up nearly 47% of the US workforce. Forecasts predict women will control 75% of discretionary spend by 2028. Data like this validates how influential women are, but how much does that influence cost? Women are more susceptible to a collision of mental health stressors. Role overload leads them to offload career aspirations. The impact of the collision leaves them no other choices. Collisons all add up, and they cost a lot.
Collision into Culture Ultimately, PinPoint is positively optimistic. We are leaning in to asking how mental health can evolve into what our September newsletter called “mental wealth”. How might we personalize mental health, having open conversations with our teams about what mental wealth means and looks like? How might we get ahead of looming collisions, showing up with our teams and customers ahead of the impact and during the aftermath? How might we use perspective-taking to reframe the crisis curve into a culture curve? One that anticipates flexibility, self-advocacy, and peace of mind?
What’s your perspective on how to notice a crisis collison? How do you and your team communicate about mental health? What does a realistic reframe to wealth look like? Let’s get ahead of the crisis curve together and chat over an e-coffee.
