A new online learning resource that will help individuals to tackle mental health discrimination launches today (19th January 2010). 

Speak Out! Your really useful guide to challenging mental health discrimination, is based on learning from the Open Up Initiatives Scheme that is part of the Time to Change programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund. Open Up provides support and inspiration for people with experience of mental health problems who want to challenge stigma and discrimination for themselves. 

Delivery of these 32 grassroots initiatives has been critical to the success of the new social movement built by Time to Change that has supported people to disclose their experiences of mental health problems in order to change the attitudes and behaviour of the rest of the population.

Mental health discrimination is one of the major obstructions that people who have personal experience of a mental health problem face in their daily lives. It comes in many forms and can affect job prospects, health outcomes and relationships with family and friends. Nine out of ten people say they experience discrimination and often this is seen as a greater barrier than the symptoms of a mental illness itself.


The new resource is intended to give people with experience of mental health issues a practical guide to fighting stigma and discrimination in their local community. Speak Out contains films and factsheets as well as advice from people who have formed their own grassroots groups. 

Caroline Roe is Director of Harmless, an organisation based in Nottingham run by and for people with experience of self harm. Harmless was supported by the Open Up Initiatives Scheme to write and publish In Our Own Words, a book about self-harm. She explains: “The project forced me to grow as an individual, for example I had to develop skills in managing a project. I had to think very strategically about to achieve all of our aims, simultaneously balancing the need to support people involved in the project and managing their emotional needs.


“The book was intended to inform and inspire the general public, others who self-harm, and service providers. Thanks to Open Up, In Our Own Words is now in wide circulation, and is sold through major retailers like Amazon and Waterstones.”

Janie Greville, from the West Midlands, was part of Mission Miraculus, a group which organised a roadshow around the Midlands to challenge the assumptions about mental health. She commented: “The support we received to bring this project to life has made a great difference to me. It has effectively acted as a recovery intervention for me and my colleagues in the group.

“In the run up to the roadshows we learned how to organise ourselves and some of us, if not all of us, learned that we had competences and capacities beyond those we had assumed of ourselves. Little by little we began to notice that others took us seriously and respected us for our values and work. “

Brigid Morris, Open Up Project Manager, said: “Open Up believes that raising awareness about mental health is the best way to confront stereotypes and tackle discrimination for which resources such as this are vital. We hope Speak Out will provide useful practical advice to those wishing to do this.  We work with people who want to speak out against discrimination in positive and constructive ways, giving them the tools and the confidence they need to put their plans into action.

“We put Speak Out together so people who want to tackle mental health discrimination in their community can have a starting point to turn to. We hope this resource will prove to be a really useful guide that will help people to set up their own anti-discrimination projects with great advice and ideas from people who are experts by experience.”

Open Up, part of the Time to Change programme, supports people with experience of mental distress to challenge mental health discrimination at a grassroots level. The project’s work is led by people with lived experience of mental health issues and provides training, networking and mentoring opportunities where people can share skills and resources and develop their ideas.

For more information visit www.time-to-change.org.uk/speakout

Ends


Notes to editors:
For interview requests for spokespeople or case studies please contact Jenny Tudor in the Time to Change Press Office on 0208 2152 358/ 07789 721 966 [email protected]


1. The Open Up Initiatives Scheme is a programme of support for people with experience of mental distress who want to challenge discrimination in their community. Open Up supported 16 projects in 2008 and a further 16 in 2009, the programme offers guidance and support for a year in order for each project to put their plans into action.

2. Time to Change is England’s most ambitious programme to end the discrimination faced by people with mental health problems, and improve the nation’s wellbeing.  The leading mental health charities Mind and Rethink are running the programme, funded with £16m from the Big Lottery Fund and £4.5m from Comic Relief, and evaluated by the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College, London.

3. Open Up is funded through Time to Change by the Big Lottery Fund. The Big Lottery Fund’s support for Time to Change comes from its £165m Well-being programme, which provides funding to support the development of healthier lifestyles and to improve well-being.  The Big Lottery Fund has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004. It was established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.  Full details of the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk