Today, results published by Time to Change, the mental health anti-stigma programme, has shown that the attitudes and behaviour of young people relating to mental health problems can be shifted, and discrimination can be reduced. Evaluation of a pilot project aimed at 14 to 18 year olds in the West Midlands shows positive shifts in attitudes of young people, parents and guardians and youth professionals.
As we reach Halloween Mind and Time to Change are encouraged that leading supermarkets Asda and Tesco have committed to improving mental health awareness following their withdrawal of Halloween themed costumes last month.
Representatives from Mind and Time to Change, the anti-stigma campaign run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, met with the retailers to discuss the potential to work together to combat mental health stigma and avoid a repeat of recent events.
As a general rule we would welcome programmes that encourage wider discussion to help improve understanding of mental health issues. For this reason we worked closely with Channel 4 last year to support their season 4 Goes Mad and were pleased with the content of the programmes made. We have also been really impressed with the episodes we’ve seen of the Bedlam series that is currently showing on Channel 4.
Mind, Rethink Mental Illness and their anti stigma campaign Time to Change have issued the following comment after a meeting with The Sun and the subsequent headline clarification in today’s newspaper about their front page story ''1200 killed by mental patients' (7 October).
In a joint statement Paul Farmer, CEO of the charity Mind, Paul Jenkins, CEO of the charity Rethink Mental Illness and Sue Baker, Director of Time to Change, said:
