Who are we?

Time to Change is an anti-stigma campaign run by the leading mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.

These two charities decided to work together, combining their knowledge, skills and expertise, in the biggest attempt yet in England to end the discrimination that surrounds mental health.

Scotland and New Zealand have led the way with similar campaigns, but this is the first time England has benefited from major, country-wide initiative.

The campaign is funded by the Department of Health and Comic Relief .  

Its first phase ran from 2007 - 2011 with funding from the Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief.  We are now in our second phase, which will run until March 2015.

What we hope to achieve

This is the first project in England that aims to change behaviour, rather than just attitudes.

Our aims for this phase are to:

• Improve public attitudes towards people with mental health problems by 5%
• Reduce discrimination by 5%
• Reduce the number of areas of life in which people experience discrimination
• Increase the confidence and ability of people with mental health problems to address discrimination
• Improve the social capital of people with mental health problems.

In our first phase, we have already seen a reduction in discrimination levels and some improvements to public attitudes. The final outcomes of our first phase will be measured by the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London later in 2012.  Read more about our progress.