Here are some questions people commonly ask us, listed by topic. To view the answer, click on the question.
What opportunities are there to get involved with Time to Change?
There are lots of things you can do to help us spread the word about Time to Change, to get people talking about mental health, and support friends, family or colleagues. Whether you have just minutes or much longer to spare, we have plenty of ideas for actions you can do to get involved and join the movement to change attitudes. For example, you can become a Time to Change Champion and bring the campaign to your community, workplace or school, or you can blog for us, or simply have a conversation about mental health.
How do I get my workplace involved with Time to Change?
Bringing the campaign to your workplace is easy when you know how. You can:
- Make a commitment to reduce stigma and mental health discrimination in the workplace by signing our Employer Pledge. Register your interest in signing our Employer Pledge here.
- Start planning anti-stigma activity in your workplace by reading case studies showing the different ways other employers have put their pledges into action.
- Help challenge workplace discrimination – our employment resources are here to help you understand your rights as an employee and to help managers and HR professionals understand more about mental health in the workplace.
- Download conversation starters, postcards and posters to spread the word amongst your colleagues: put them in kitchens, canteens, bathrooms and other communal areas.
- Study our Support for Employers page to find out how workplaces can act to reduce mental health stigma and discrimination on the office floor.
If you are an emergency service employer or voluntary group from the police, search and rescue, fire or ambulance services within England, read all about the Blue Light Time to Change pledge.
How do I find out about paid and voluntary job opportunities at Time to Change?
All current vacancies are listed on the Time to Change website, as well as our partner's websites, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness. Please note that we do not accept unsolicited CVs.
How do I become a Time to Change Champion?
Time to Change Champions use their lived experience of mental health problems to change the way people think and act about mental health.
Being a champion is a flexible and voluntary commitment - you can do what you have time for, and what you’re comfortable doing. There are lots of ways to be a Champion, from having conversations about mental health with the people around you to running an activity in your community or your workplace.
As a Champion, you will also have access to resources, training and support to help you speak out and campaign to change people’s attitudes towards those of us with mental health problems. You will also get the opportunity to meet and campaign alongside like-minded people in your community.
Find out more about what it means to become a Time to Change Champion.
Can I write a personal blog for Time to Change?
Personal blogs, vlogs and stories can be a powerful way to talk about mental health, reach hundreds and thousands of people and change attitudes. Find out how to blog for Time to Change.
Please note that our blogs are personal stories, written on a voluntary basis with the specific goal of changing how people think and act. We are unable to pay for a blog contribution, and we do not offer sponsored posts.
Do you offer trainings for workplaces?
Training for pledged Employers
Masterclasses
Our Masterclasses offer you the chance to learn from other employers from a wide variety of sectors. They are available for organisations who have signed the pledge and are geared towards pledge leads, managers and directors. Priority is given to organisations who have just joined the programme to accelerate their progress but wherever possible we aim to extend this support to any pledged organisations who need to readdress the campaign in their workplace.
Champions training
We offer separate training for Champions in the Workplace and our Senior Champions Officer will be in touch with you once your action plan has been approved and a pledge date set.
Mental health awareness courses
As Time to Change we don't deliver general mental health awareness talks, workshops or courses, but our partners Mind and Rethink Mental Illness both offer a full range training courses:
Mind Training
Mind run scheduled mental health training courses for individuals and groups at a number of locations across England and Wales, with over 50 courses to choose from as well as bespoke in-house courses. Running a Mind Training course at your workplace or attending a regional training event is a great way of helping your staff to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to effectively promote good mental health at work and support anyone who is experiencing a mental health problem in the workplace.
For more information about Mind training please visit: https://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/training-consultancy/
Rethink Mental Illness Training
Rethink Mental Illness’ Mental Health Awareness training will strengthen the support that you offer to a colleague, client, friend or family member experiencing a mental health problem. You will learn how to manage your own wellbeing, but also how to improve the management of mental health in your workplace and handling difficult conversations.
For more information about Rethink Mental Illness training please visit: http://www.rethink.org/services-groups/mental-health-training
How can I get involved in activity locally?
Organisations and groups across England run events to help tackle stigma. Campaign groups are changing attitudes to mental health within their own communities, workplaces and places of education. And for the first time ever, local Champions and organisations have come together to form Time to Change Hubs, delivering local campaigns to challenge mental health stigma. Take a look at our map to see what is happening near you and get involved.
Can Time to Change provide a speaker for my event?
Community events
Time to Change promotes events across England that encourage people to talk about mental health to challenge stigma and discrimination. Our Community Equalities Coordinators located in the different regions of England work alongside local Champions, volunteers who use their lived experience of mental health problems to change the way people think and act about mental health.
If you would like someone to speak or volunteer at your event, please register your event on our event map and send us an invitation by email. All speaker requests are managed by our Community Leadership team, who review the requests and respond within 10 working days.
Please note! We receive a high number of requests for Coordinators and Champions to attend events, so we are unable to support every request. We aim to support a selection of events across the year. We are unable to accommodate requests with less than a month’s notice.
There are other ways Time to Change can support your event. We can offer campaign materials free of charge, including posters, postcards, and conversation starters to help you raise awareness and tackle mental health stigma and discrimination. You can customise and download these materials and print them in the office or send the artwork to professional printers. We also have videos available on our YouTube channel that you could show on the day.
For tips and hints on how to run a successful event that challenges stigma, download a free Social Contact Event Toolkit (pdf) and check our Campaigns Portal. You can promote your event by registering it on our website.
After your event, you can inspire others by sharing what you have done to change attitudes about mental health on our Change Makers page.
Employer Speaker Requests
If you want to bring Time to Change to your workplace, you can encourage your employer to sign the Employer Pledge. If you would like a member of the employers team to come out and speak about mental health stigma in the workplace, please contact [email protected]
The employers team will review your request and respond within 1 week. The employers team is always in high demand so may not be able to attend every event they are invited to, though they will try.
Children and young people
If you are a secondary school or youth organisation and would like the CYP team to speak at an event, please get in touch at [email protected]
The team will review your request and let you know if they will be able to attend.
Can Time to Change help promote my event?
We promote events across England that encourage people to talk about mental health to challenge stigma and discrimination. We can promote your event on our event map (with your consent) and let people know what they can expect to find when they come along, and what to look forward to.
Register your event and find out what additional advice and materials we can provide to help you make your event as successful as possible.
Can Time to Change provide a celebrity for my event?
While Time to Change has worked with a number of celebrities, we do not actually have any official celebrity ambassadors. As such, we are unable to approach celebrities directly to request they attend events.
See also the Mind and Rethink Mental Illness websites for work they do with celebrities.
Do you have any examples of good practice, or tips on how to run projects and events to challenge mental health stigma?
Yes. Download our free Guides and Toolkits which provide examples of good practice, and tips on how to run projects and events that challenge mental health stigma. Check our Champions Campaigns Portal for everything you need to campaign as a Champion, from how to plan and run an activity to how to speak out in your everyday life.
Can you provide me with any high resolution images for use in print and digital media?
In April 2015 Time to Change launched our Get the Picture campaign with a wide range of images that are free to download from our own page on the Newscast website. They are hi-res and suitable to be published alongside news stories and features. We want picture editors to have a real choice of realistic and relevant photos to bring reports about mental health to life. All images are available for free download at print resolution, page-ready JPEG files with caption and copyright detail embedded.
Where can I find campaign materials and resources?
You can customise, download and print your own resources to use for free from our website: www.time-to-change.org.uk/resources
These materials include posters, bunting, conversation tip cards, and banner artwork as well as images you can use on social media. We also have videos available on our YouTube channel.
Please note that, as Time to Change has now grown into a movement of thousands of people and hundreds of organisations, we are no longer able to provide printed materials. Our online resource hub enables people in schools, organisations and communities to promote the movement with more independence, long into the future.
If you are looking for tips and hints on how to run a successful event that challenges stigma, download a free Social Contact Event Toolkit and check our Champions Campaigns Portal.
What resources are available for young people, parents, teachers and youth professionals?
The Children and Young People’s Team works to improve the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of young people, families, teachers and youth professionals around mental health.
Find out about the work we are doing with organisations and schools and the information and resources we have available for young people, parents and teachers and youth professionals, and why it's good to talk about mental health.
Do you provide any information or guidance for journalists or script writers?
The Time to Change media team can offer advice on how to report mental health responsibly, including guidance on language and best practice around working with case studies. Please find our media guidelines here.
If you’d like more information about mental health conditions, treatment, or services, please contact the media teams at Mind or Rethink Mental Illness: [email protected] or [email protected]
If you’re working on a soap, drama, or documentary and you’d like advice on how to cover mental health, please contact Mind’s media engagement service on [email protected]. Please note that Mind’s team only has capacity to work on projects that have already been commissioned.
Can Time to Change support, promote or endorse my book/video/music/theatre production?
Unfortunately, Time to Change is generally unable to support, endorse or promote campaigns or artistic projects that aren’t produced by us or in partnership with us. This is because we need to ensure everything we promote reflects our values, and we simply don’t have the time to read or watch everything that is sent to us.
Please feel free to share your project with our Time to Change community - you can connect with other supporters by tagging @timetochange when posting on your own Facebook and Twitter profiles, and by posting to our Facebook wall.
As part of our campaign to change the way we all think and act about mental health problems, we do share personal stories that are within our specific remit. If you would like to us to publish or share your blog or vlog on our channels, please read our blogging guidelines to find out what we can and can’t share.
Are there any anti-stigma campaigns outside of England (i.e. in other parts of the UK or globally)?
We're Time to Change - a campaign to end the stigma and discrimination that people with mental health problems face in England. However, there are anti-stigma programmes outside of England: See Me in Scotland, Time to Change Wales, See Change in Ireland and Change your Mind in Northern Ireland.
In April 2018 Time to Change launched a new global programme to support work to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in a number of other Commonwealth countries as well.
Time to Change is also a member of the Global Anti-Stigma Alliance (GASA), which brings together national campaigns about mental health stigma from across the world to share knowledge, best practices and materials.
I am a student and would like Time to Change to support my project/research. Can you help?
We receive a high volume of requests from students seeking help with their projects. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to respond to these requests. However, depending on your research subject, there are several pages on our website that might be useful to you:
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Resources, where you'll find several reports, including about the effects of stigma and discrimination
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What we do, where you can find links to more information about all the aspects of our work
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Our Impact and Our Legacy, where you'll find information about our research into changing attitudes and behaviours, and evaluations of our campaigns
- Media Centre, where you can find the latest news and comments, our guidelines for representing people with mental health problems in the media, and our research into portrayals of mental health in tv drama and soaps. Please note that our media team does not have the capacity to speak to students.
Do Time to Change offer grants to support my project?
Champions Fund
The Time to Change Champions Fund is available to people over the age of 18 who are registered as Champions and have direct lived experience of mental health problems. The fund is for the purpose of challenging stigma and discrimination and can be accessed only if living within an area of one of our Funded Hubs. To find out if you are eligible to apply, please see details here.
Other funding requests
Unfortunately, Time to Change is unable to consider any other funding requests. However, the Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief both provide grants for community projects:
- National Lottery's Awards for All England: a simple small grants scheme (awards are £300 - £10,000) aiming to help bring people together, improve spaces that matter to communities and enable more people to fulfil their potential. Find out about all Big Lottery Fund funding programmes.
- Read more about Comic Relief's Open Initiatives
We are an advertising agency, media buying or creating industries agency. Can we work with Time to Change?
Time to Change is a campaign run by the two leading mental health charities, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, to end the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems. We are funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund using funding from the National Lottery. As we are government funded, we have to route all media buying through the government’s media buying agency. We also have media planning and creative agencies in place.
Would it be possible for Time to Change to add a link to our website?
We receive a large number of emails each week asking for us to add links to our website. Unfortunately, because of the time it would take for us to look at each individual website, we are unable to link to external websites on request. The only links we have on our website are to key mental health help and support services, and this page is reviewed at Time to Change's discretion only.
However, you are welcome to share your project with our Time to Change community - you can connect with other supporters by tagging @timetochange when posting on your own Facebook and Twitter profiles, and by posting to our Facebook wall.
Can you tell me about the audiences, organisations and communities that Time to Change works with?
The primary audiences for Time to Change are the general public, and people with lived experience of mental health problems. However, the programme also works with the following target audiences:
- Men aged 25-44
- We are supporting Champions to set up Campaign groups, with a focus on Black and Minority Ethnic communities
- Children and Young People, and those who support and work with them
- Employers
Find out more about what we are doing.
See also Research and Reports for copies of reports, surveys and research produced by Time to Change.
Does Time to Change work with Black and Minority Ethnic communities?
Stigma and discrimination are all too common experiences for people with mental health problems from all backgrounds. But there is evidence that levels of discrimination are particularly high within some Black and Minority Ethnic groups, and people from these communities often have to face discrimination on not one, but two fronts.
We are currently supporting Champions to set up Campaign groups, with a focus on Black and Minority Ethnic communities. If you are a Champion or local organisation from a Black and Minority Ethnic community in England and would like to learn more, please get in touch on [email protected].
We have done focused work with the South Asian community and African and Caribbean communities in previous phases of our campaign. You can read more about all of our past projects, and see also our Research and Reports for copies of reports, surveys and research produced by Time to Change.
Can you tell me more about your campaign bursts since the launch of Time to Change?
Since 2009 when we launched our groundbreaking anti-stigma campaign, we have run several campaign bursts, with advertising on TV, in the national press and magazines, on the radio, and online. Find out more about Our Campaigns.
I am experiencing mental health problems. Can Time to Change provide any help or support?
Time to Change focuses solely on challenging mental health stigma and discrimination in England, which means that we are not able to provide individual advice, help or support. However, we are run by the mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, which both provide help, support and information about mental health.
If you’re experiencing mental health problems, there are several places you can go to for help. Click here for a list of mental health help and support services (including Mind Infoline, Rethink Mental Illness Advice Line, the Samaritans, Saneline, The Mix, ChildLine and Elefriends Online Community).
If you are experiencing a crisis and need urgent support, you can call the Samaritans for free on 116 123 for confidential, non-judgmental emotional support. They are available any time - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Can Time to Change provide me with more information about mental health problems, treatment options or support services?
Time to Change focuses solely on challenging mental health stigma and discrimination in England, which means that we are not able to provide information about mental health problems, treatment options or support services. However, we are run by the mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, which both offer support and provide information about types of mental health problems, diagnoses and treatment options.
If you’re experiencing mental health problems, there are several places you can go to for help. Click here for a list of mental health help and support services (including Mind Infoline, Rethink Mental Illness Advice Line, the Samaritans, Saneline, The Mix, ChildLine and Elefriends Online Community).
Do you provide legal advice or information about mental health related law?
At Time to Change, we focus solely on our campaign to challenge mental health stigma and discrimination in England, which means that we are not able to assist in individual cases. However, our partners Mind and Rethink Mental Illness provide legal information and general advice on mental health related law covering mental health, mental capacity, community care, human rights and discrimination/equality related to mental health issues.
How and why do you moderate social media at Time to Change?
Comments, debate and different perspectives are welcome and encouraged. We want people to feel they can discuss personal experiences in a safe, respectful environment.
In order to ensure that people feel able to enter discussions online though we do moderate comments on our blog posts and our social media channels such as Facebook.
The Time to Change digital and communications teams moderate social media between office hours Monday to Friday. Social media is also moderated at the weekends, but on a reduced service. We try to respond to as many comments as possible as quickly as possible, however, where a commenter is in distress or is asking us a question directly, we aim to respond in 48 hours.
All other details regarding our blog and social media commenting, moderating and monitoring policy can be found here.
How can I get involved with Time to Change on social media?
Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. We also have a personal stories section on our website, with a comment section.
You can get involved with Time to Change on social media by:
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Commenting on/liking/sharing/retweeting posts
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Sending us content you have written/made via Facebook and Twitter
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Sharing your personal story with us. Find out how to blog for Time to Change.
To help keep our social media channels a safe and friendly place to be, we have a blog and social media commenting, moderating and monitoring policy.
Please take a look at the questions above before emailing us. If your question is not answered here, please contact us via email.