Time to Change, England’s biggest mental health anti-stigma programme, run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness has been awarded a further £3.6million by the Big Lottery Fund to deliver targeted work to drive major social change by challenging the stigma and discrimination that people with mental health problems face.
The grant, which comes in addition to existing funding from the Department of Health and Comic Relief, will see Time to Change transform the attitudes and behaviour of millions though social marketing and community engagement activities, bringing people with and without experience of mental health problems together to engage in conversations. This has been proven to be effective in breaking down stigma and improving attitudes.
Projects funded by the new grant will focus on specific communities and groups that are particularly at risk from stigma and discrimination including the African and Caribbean community, children and young people, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) people.
The funding will mean that Time to Change is able to:
• Use more TV advertising (alongside other media) to reach 37.4 million people and improve attitudes and behaviour towards people with mental health problems.
• Deliver a pilot social marketing campaign to target African and Caribbean communities in order to improve attitudes towards mental health within these groups.
• Launch a new pilot to develop interventions and training to reduce the dual discrimination faced by young African and Caribbean men with mental health problems using services.
• Focus on reducing mental health stigma within LGB&T communities through the Mind Out project.
• Run a local programme in Bristol which will empower hundreds of volunteers with experience of mental health problems to start conversations about mental health across the city.
• Offer training and networking sessions to people from African and Caribbean, rural and LGB&T communities, as well as older people and people with physical disabilities, from across England.
• Develop a networking and peer learning programme to support organisations to tackle workplace stigma and discrimination.
• Deliver 10 events which will challenge stigma and discrimination in communities around England. The events will enable people with mental health problems to develop leadership skills.
• Work with children and young people on a programme of activities that will challenge mental health stigma and discrimination in secondary schools.
Sue Baker, Director of Time to Change, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded an additional £3.6million from the Big Lottery Fund. This funding will allow us invest in more targeted work with marginalised communities severely affected by mental health stigma and discrimination including African and Caribbean communities as well with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people.
“We will also be able to roll out our campaign for children and young people beyond our current pilot region and into another five parts of the country, working with 25 schools to reach 11 to 18 year olds. This work will help boost our current funding from the Department of Health and Comic Relief to help us ensure that improvements in public attitudes and reductions discrimination benefit all communities.”
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For more information please contact Hayley Richardson-Roberts, Time to Change Senior Media Officer, on 0208 2152 358/ 07789 721 966.
Notes to Editors
Time to Change
Time to Change is England's most ambitious programme to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems. The programme is run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, and funded by the Department of Health and Comic Relief.
Big Lottery Fund
The Big Lottery Fund supported the first phase of the Time to Change campaign with a £16million grant from its £165m Well-being programme. The largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, Big Lottery Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has awarded close to £6bn to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since 2004. For full details of BIG’s work visit: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Department of Health
On 2 February 2011 the Department of Health launched No health without mental health, a cross-government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages which has the twin aims of keeping people well and improving their mental health and, when people are not well, improving their outcomes through high-quality services. The strategy is based on six shared objectives, developed with partners from across the mental health sector, and focuses on ‘Recovery’ and the reduction of stigma and discrimination as overarching themes.
To help deliver the objective to reduce the stigma faced by people with mental health problems, in 2011 the Department agreed to support Time to Change, the anti-stigma campaign run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness. The Department of Health is providing the campaign with up to £16 million of funding together with a further £4 million from Comic Relief. This funding will help Time to Change continue their work until March 2015.
Comic Relief
Comic Relief is committed to supporting people living with mental health problems. The projects Comic Relief funds ensure people with mental health problems get their voices heard in the decisions that affect their lives and get the help they need to recover. Comic Relief also helps people to promote their rights and reduce the stigma and discrimination they face so that they feel more included in society. The £4 million grant to Time to Change is the second time the charity has awarded Time to Change its largest UK grant and is part of Comic Relief's long standing commitment to this issue.