By Meredith Lepore
In the wake of the death of founder Kate Spade, her namesake company has pledged to donate $1 million to mental health awareness and suicide prevention causes. According to Racked, the Kate Spade brand will give $250,000 to the Crisis Text Line, a free, 24-hour confidential text message service for people having mental health crises.
They will also match public donations to the organization up to $100,000 until June 29. It has not been decided which mental health organization will receive the remaining amount of the donation.
In addition to this initiative, the company will also be launching a wellness program for its employees and will host a global mental health awareness day. Spade, who left the company in 2007, took her own life earlier this month and suffered from anxiety and depression according to her husband, Andy Spade.
More and more companies including Barclays, RBS, and Unilever are starting mental health awareness initiatives. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 18% of American adults suffer from a form of mental illness. Mental health issues among working adults cost employers more than $500 billion dollars in lost productivity annually.
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Originally published at www.theladders.com