Telus donates youth-focused mental health app to CMHA

Vancouver, B.C. – Today, at the Healthy Minds Healthy Campuses Summit in Vancouver, TELUS announced the donation of its new iOS mindfulness app, thinkFull, to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) BC Division. thinkFull is a stress management app aimed at improving the mental health of young adults by helping them monitor and develop coping strategies to manage stress levels.

The app provides personalized mental wellness coaching, allowing people to track their stress levels over time and tap into a rich library of tips for relieving stress, solving problems and living well. Information is customized to meet a user’s specific needs based on usage patterns and the app acts as both a resource and a repository – users rate their anxiety levels from one to seven and write accompanying journal entries that can be kept private or reviewed and discussed with a mental health professional.

“Statistics show that 15 to 24-year-olds currently have the highest rates of mood and anxiety disorders of all age groups – with approximately 11 per cent experiencing depression at some point in their lives,” said Bev Gutray, CEO of the CMHA BC Division. “We are delighted to add thinkFull to our arsenal of resources to promote positive mental health and are thankful to TELUS for this generous donation.”

“This generation are technologically savvy and spend hours each day on their smartphones, so supporting them with an innovative and intuitive app makes sense,” Gutray continued. “We are certain that thinkFull will be of great benefit to our Healthy Minds Healthy Campuses and other community members to help build greater resiliency and tackle the stressful situations and challenges they face during their studies and beyond.”

Developed in partnership with the CMHA and mental health non-profit Mind Your Mind, thinkFull was the result of TELUS’ first Social Enterprise Competition – a unique initiative to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of the company’s team members challenging them to develop a product or service to help improve the health and wellness of Canadians.

“Through the use of innovative technology, together we have the power and privilege to help Canadians live healthier and happier lives,” said Jill Schnarr, VP of Community Investment at TELUS, “As one of the original content providers to our thinkFull app, it was an honour to gift the CMHA with this intuitive resource so that more youth who are struggling with mental health issues across the country will have the support they need, right at their fingertips.”

Find out more about thinkFull by watching this video, and download the iOS app in the app store.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is Canada’s fastest-growing national telecommunications company, with $12.8 billion of annual revenue and 12.7 million subscriber connections, including 8.6 million wireless subscribers, 1.7 million high-speed Internet subscribers, 1.4 million residential network access lines and more than a million TELUS TV customers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video. TELUS is Canada’s largest health care IT provider, and TELUS International delivers business process solutions around the globe.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and our retirees have contributed more than $482 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered the equivalent of more than a million days of service to local communities since 2000. TELUS’ twelve Canadian community boards and five International boards have led the company’s support of grassroots charities and have contributed more than $60 million in support of 5,595 local charitable projects, enriching the lives of more than 2 million children and youth annually. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition. As reflected in our Corporate Social Responsibility Report, our commitment to sustainability is inspired by nature and aims to create a healthier future for all. For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

About CMHA
Founded in 1918, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is the most established, most extensive community mental health organization in Canada. Through a presence in hundreds of neighbourhoods across every province, CMHA provides advocacy and resources that help to prevent mental health problems and illnesses, support recovery and resilience, and enable all Canadians to flourish and thrive. Visit the CMHA BC website at www.cmha.bc.ca.

Notes to editor:

• The donation announcement will be made at 2 p.m. PST on April 4, 2017 at the Healthy Minds Healthy Campuses Summit 2017
• Address: Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 W Hastings Street, Vancouver (Seymour Street Courtyard Entrance)
• For further information on Summit 2017, please visit: http://bit.ly/2ovSA8i
• Social media: Twitter – @CMHABC, @TELUS, @TELUSHealth
  Facebook – @CMHABCDIVISION

Media Contact
For all media enquiries and interview requests:
Lorna Allen, Communications Coordinator – Media, CMHA BC Division
P: 604-688-3234 ext. 6326
C: 778-835-2778
E: lorna.allen@cmha.bc.ca

Jill Yetman
TELUS Social and Media Relations
416-992-2639
Jill.yetman@telus.com