A singing sensation, story-telling performances, an interactive game, and the live broadcast of personal stories about mental health problems amongst refugees are just some of the ways that local communities will be tackling mental health stigma discrimination after receiving funding totalling £533,600 from the national Time to Change programme.
Following on from the recent landmarks in mental health anti-stigma campaigning - when four MPs disclosed their mental illness in Parliament and the bold Channel 4 season ‘4 Goes Mad’ - a wide range of creative approaches will now be rolled out by local communities. Sixteen new projects have secured funding from Time to Change, which is run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness and funded by the Department of Health and Comic Relief.
Earlier this year Time to Change launched a new grants fund for community-led projects that will see approximately £2.7 million awarded over three years to around 70 local community groups to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination.
The first 16 projects will work with a wide range of communities including young people, BME and LGBT, refugees and rural groups. Each of the projects have people with mental health problems in leading positions who will have direct contact with the public to start the kind of conversations that can transform attitudes. Evidence suggests that this kind of contact is one of the most effective ways of breaking down stigma and discrimination.
Some of the 16 new projects include:
- ‘Raise Your Voice’ is run by The I Choir. Liverpool based community choir The I Choir (a mixture of people with and without mental health problems led by a Musical Director) will hold song writing workshops involving the local community with the theme of talking openly about mental health, resulting in the production of a CD and performances.
- ‘Challenge Minds, Inspire Change’ is run by The Afiya Trust. The project includes an advisory group of ten people from BME communities with experience of mental health problems who will support local BME organisations to organise and run events. Afiya will also run larger regional events for employers, schools, colleges and charities.
- ‘Mis-understanding’ run by BRAP in partnership with Youth Space in the West
Midlands. This project will bring together young people with and without personal experience of mental health problems to explore the negative language often used around mental health, with a specific focus on young people from BME communities. Interactive resources will be developed and young people will be trained as learning mentors, using the resources in schools, youth clubs, and voluntary organisations to start conversations about mental health.
Another project that received funding was ‘Let’s get talking’ run by Sheffield Mind in partnership with Pakistan Advice and Community Association and Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Trust. Talking about their success, Bridget Strong, Chief Executive at Sheffield Mind, said:
“We are delighted to receive funding from Time to Change and we can’t wait to get started with our work. Our project centres around people with experience of mental health problems who will work together to make a film that looks at stigma and discrimination across the generations in Pakistani and Somali communities. Together with a “walk and talk” training tool, the film will then be taken out into different communities to help start discussion.”
Sue Baker, Director of Time to Change, said: “What works to challenge stigma in one community may not work in the same way in another, so through the grants fund we are putting the power to make change happen into the hands of the experts – the people who know their communities the best.
“Each and every one of the projects that have received funding will see people with lived experience of mental health problems taking a lead role, empowering them to be at the forefront in challenging mental health stigma and discrimination in England.”
The fund is now open for the second round of applications and the deadline for applications is 2pm on Friday 21 September. Grants will be awarded at the end of the year, with two more rounds of funding in 2013.
For information about the grants and for a full list of the projects awarded funded in round one please visit www.time-to-change.org.uk/grants
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For more information please contact Hayley Richardson, Time to Change Senior Media Officer, on [email protected] or 0208 2152 358/ 07789 721 966. Follow Hayley on Google+
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.
For more information go to www.time-to-change.org.uk
This new grants scheme will fund 75 local projects between May 2012 and March 2015.
Out of the £2.7million, 20% of the fund will be awarded to projects that work with young people and 25% for projects run by and for people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities.
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. For more information go to www.comicrelief.com