Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Case study: Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust signed the Time to Change pledge in March 2009 and planned a large scale local social marketing campaign in October 2009 to coincide with the national campaign.

The Trust’s own anti stigma campaign had been running since 2007 and signing up with Time to Change allowed it to join a national campaign while still keeping its own work going.

Choosing the Time to Change brand

In order to gain as much exposure as possible, the Trust decided early on to run with the Time to Change brand, putting adverts on buses all over Nottinghamshire. These adverts coincided with a radio commercial commissioned by the Trust which was also broadcast throughout October across Nottinghamshire.  

Advertising and promotional materials were all linked to Time to Change and working under this umbrella brand meant it was easier to form partnerships with other organisations that were already linked into Time to Change.  

Human Libraries

A big part of the Trust’s ongoing activity is running ‘Human Libraries’ – where people with experience of mental health problems put themselves ‘on loan’ to the public as ‘human books’.

Human Libraries are a great way of taking the anti stigma message out to the general public as they work on the principles of social contact theory, which is so vital to breaking down negative attitudes.  The Trust have now run over 20 Human Libraries, with over 700 ‘loans’ or conversations.

The Human Libraries' success was based entirely on partnership working. The Trust worked with the City and County Library Service, Rethink and Mind as well as smaller organisations and individuals to bring this together.

Two-way benefit

All the publicity allowed the grassroots events to feel like part of the wider campaign, and added to the national campaign as well as benefiting from it. It was a fantastic month, which inspired everybody involved and took the anti stigma message out to the general public.