We're very proud to have been working with the Society for Mental Health Research and the ABC over the last few months to help pull this week's Mental As... campaign together. It's great to be able to work on projects in aid of such an important cause and an honour for us to again work with Professor Pat McGorry, 2010 Australian of the Year.

ABC Mental As... is a week-long campaign across all channels and platforms of the national broadcaster for Mental Health Week (5-12 October) encouraging people to start talking, to give to mental health research so Australia's next generation of researchers can seek breakthroughs, progress, and cures.

A few weeks back Elise wrote a blog post about the new SMHR site that we'd just launched. This site was the first that we launched using the improvements to our CMS that we're launching to all clients this month - so the site was a bit of a watershed in itself, but as part of this project we've also worked across multiple platforms to assist with design of the donation page, pull donation tallies through and to get SMHR's eBay store up and running for the huge auction of items generously donated by artists and celebrities.

But enough about the project! Time to talk about the issues and who benefits.

Did you know:

• Nearly 50% of all Australians experience at least one episode of mental ill health in our lives
• Almost every Australian is affected: as carers, parents, friends, family
• For 15-44 year olds, mental illness outstrips all other health issues
• The annual cost of mental illness in Australia has been estimated at more than $20 billion

What happens to the money?

The Society for Mental Health Research (SMHR) the national peak body for psychiatric and mental health research in Australia and New Zealand. SMHR will administer all funds raised, with donations to be invested in mental health research.

Donate now! https://mental-as-2014.everydayhero.com/au/jack-marlow

Find out more:

• ABC Mental As
• Society for Mental Health Research