To mark World Mental Health Day tomorrow, October 10th, Spark Foundry will close its offices nationally and the entire staff will take a day to reflect on their own mental health.

Spark has also asked its staff to donate a minimum of $10 to 1010, the World Mental Health Day charity, which advocates on behalf of a wide range of people working to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all Australians.

In addition, staff have been asked to make a “promise” via the World Mental Health Day website, save it as a jpeg and all promises feature on the World Mental Health Day ‘Promise Wall’ at the Spark’s Sydney and Melbourne offices.

The “Do You See What I See?” #MentalHealthPromise initiative challenges perceptions about mental illness in Australia and encourages everyone to look at mental health in a more positive light, in an effort to reduce stigma and encourage more people to seek the help and support.

Some of the Spark staff promises include, “taking more timeout for myself”, “spend more time fundraising to support our chosen charities”, “listen openly to family members”, “don’t judge or make assumptions”

World Mental Health Day is a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy and is an initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health to raise public awareness of mental health issues worldwide.

Spark Foundry CEO, Sue Squillace (main photo), said: “This is our second year we are proud to support World Mental Health Day. The mental health issues among our youth are becoming very serious.

“We work in a young, dynamic, fast and sometimes very challenging industry so it’s never been more important for our people to pause and take a day for themselves, to work on their own mental health, whether it’s a walk with friends, an hour of yoga or supporting the various activities that many charities organise on the day.