Today, as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, the UK Government has announced a £1million grant for Time to Change to support work to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in other Commonwealth countries.
Time to Change, the mental health anti-stigma and discrimination campaign run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, will support local organisations and people with mental health problems in other Commonwealth countries to tackle stigma and discrimination within their communities. The aim is to share learning, provide adapted training and materials, and fund two pilot campaigns. Similar evidence-based approaches and evaluation methods will be used that have led to significant changes in England over the last decade.
This new two year global programme, with a focus on low and middle income countries, is being made possible with funding from the Department for International Development linked to the UK chairing the Commonwealth for this period.
The aim is to work in partnership with other countries via an annual Global Anti-Stigma Summit, webinars, website resources and e-bulletins to share learning, alongside more intensive anti-stigma work which will involve peer training and support for people with personal experience of mental health problems and local NGOs. It will also include two, year-long anti-stigma pilot campaigns in an African and an Asian country where we can support local organisations and champions to deliver positive public attitude and behaviour change across a town, city or region.
The new projects will build on the experience Time to Change has built up over 10 years of campaigning to end mental health stigma and discrimination in England. Over that time public attitudes have improved by 9.6%* and average levels of discrimination have fell from 41.6% to 28.4%.**
It will also strengthen the international links that have been developed through the Global Anti-Stigma Alliance, which Time to Change co-founded in 2012 to share learning, best practice, materials, and latest evidence to achieve better outcomes for people facing stigma and discrimination related to mental health issues. Its membership includes England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, USA, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and the Czech Republic.
The Department for International Development funding has been awarded through a grant from the Department of Health and Social Care.
The Minister for Mental Health, Jackie Doyle-Price, said: “In the UK, social attitudes to mental health have transformed, and the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign has played a very significant role in this. Over the last decade it has helped to break down myths and stigma within communities, while empowering and giving voice to those with experience of mental illness.
“Today’s £1 million investment through the Government’s Fairness Programme for the Commonwealth will help low and middle income nations to learn lessons from our experience.”
Sue Baker OBE, Global Director of Time to Change, said: “Wherever you live in the world you should not be made to feel worthless, isolated or ashamed because of your mental health problem. This new funding gives us a really exciting opportunity to work in partnership with people with lived experience of mental health problems and local organisations to lead positive change in their communities when it comes to how we all think and act about mental health.”
* National Attitudes to Mental Illness Survey, published May 2017
** Viewpoint survey of mental health service users’ experiences of discrimination in England 2008–2014
Notes to Editor
For more information please contact Senior Media Officer, Emma Warren on [email protected] or 020 8215 2341
Time to Change
We are Time to Change, a growing movement of people changing how we all think and act about mental health problems. Our voice is stronger and louder thanks to funding from the Department of Health and Social Care, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund using National Lottery funding. Our campaign is run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, and thousands more organisations have joined us to make change happen.
For more information go to www.time-to-change.org.uk