Mental Health in Wales: See past the stigma
Bubble — By Alexandra McMillan on January 26, 2010 7:00 am
See Me: the web portal for an innovative and effective campaign to challenge the stigma of mental health in Scotland
CONSERVATIVE estimates suggest one in four people will experience mental ill health at some point in their lifetime. That means it touches everybody, either directly or through a close friend or family member. Despite this, the stigma that surrounds mental ill health remains.
Research by the Equality and Human Rights Council found over a third of people in Wales wouldn’t be happy if a relative was marrying someone who experienced mental ill health. Some 40% thought someone who experiences depression is unsuitable to be a primary school teacher. We know that people encounter negative reactions and outright discrimination from employers, from service providers (including the health service) and, perhaps most sadly, from friends and family.
Changing attitudes isn’t easy, and doesn’t happen over night. However, one only needs to look at the progress that has been made towards gender and racial equality over past decades to understand that public opinion can shift significantly within a generation, which is exactly what the ‘See Me’ campaign aims to do in Scotland.
‘See Me’ is fully funded by the Scottish Government and run by an alliance of five mental health organisations. It was launched in 2002 and has already made real changes in public attitudes and behaviours: Some 85% of people experiencing mental ill health say they now feel more able and willing to be open about it. Its four aims are:
To change public understanding, attitudes and behaviours so that the stigma and discrimination associated with mental ill health is eliminated; To enhance the ability of people to challenge stigma and discrimination; To ensure that all organisations value and include people with mental health problems and those who support them; To improve media reporting of mental ill health.
The Scottish Government has run a number of high-profile media campaigns to raise public awareness of the existence and impact of stigma. Its TV advertising achieves an impressive 90% reach and 40% unprompted recall. It is now developing specific strategies to target those ‘hard-to-reach’ groups where changing attitudes and behaviours is slower. Holyrood has also been working with the Scottish media to improve reporting of mental health (work which, in the first two years alone, led to a 57% decline in the use of derogatory terms) and with local champions to run campaigns in communities across the country.
‘See Me’ has now become a model of best practice which has helped to influence the much newer ‘Time to Change’ campaign in England. Launched at the beginning of 2009, it’s also run by an alliance of mental health organisations, although it received its funding from Comic Relief and the Big Lottery rather than government, so it is unclear whether it’ll have the longevity needed to produce lasting change. Like ‘See Me’, it is combining a high-profile media campaign with community-based projects; unlike in Scotland, they’ve chosen to have a number of celebrities fronting the campaign. They’ve also decided to focus on fighting discrimination through the law by taking test cases through the courts, and on improving the attitudes of key groups by providing training for medical students and trainee teachers.
Addressing the stigma and discrimination around mental ill health is vitally important. Fear of a negative reaction often stops people from seeking help when they need it. It also stops people being open about their mental health, which in turn means that many negative stereotypes aren’t being addressed. There are plenty of people with successful professional and family lives who also have a diagnosed mental illness: not just actors and comedians but lawyers, doctors, businessmen and women.
But you never hear about them because it’s not something people like to talk about. Not being able to be honest about how you’re feeling is a massive burden and the pressure of keeping that secret can have a further negative impact on your mental health. Being open about your mental health, however, can result in discrimination that is also harmful to recovery; many people experience social isolation and struggle to find or keep a job.
So all this begs the question as to what’s happening here in Wales, where stigma is part of the mental health battle as surely as it is in any other part of the UK.
It was, surely, in recognition of this that the very first standard in the 2005 Adult Mental Health National Service Framework for Wales was all about tackling stigma. It clearly states that “by March 2009 Welsh Assembly Government and LAs/LHBs [are] to implement a programme of local and national action to tackle stigma and discrimination as part of the Mental Health Promotion Action Plan.” It also says there should be a “tracking survey of public attitudes towards people with mental health problems”, with the baseline survey to have been completed by March 2006.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? But four years on it hasn’t happened. The Mental Health Promotion Action Plan has yet to be published. There have been no public attitude surveys. There has definitely been no campaign.
Yesterday, the House of Commons debated a Legislative Competence Order from Jonathan Morgan AM which will transfer substantial powers to the Assembly to improve laws on mental health. Although the mental health LCO is a critical power for the Assembly, there’s been no need to wait for it to be passed before taking action on things that don’t require legislation to implement. The Mental Health Promotion Action Plan is a classic example.
‘See Me’ is proving that public attitudes and behaviours towards mental health can change. But this needs resources: the Scottish Government provides about £800,000 a year. More importantly, this needs a long-term commitment. ‘See Me’ has survived a change of government at Holyrood and its funding is secure until 2011, but it may well need a second decade to achieve the lasting impact that’s required.
Those resources and commitment are within the Welsh Assembly Government’s gift to allocate too. And they won’t need legislative powers through an LCO to do it. For society’s sake, let’s hope they don’t leave it too long.
Tags: health, mental health, public debate, public spending, Welsh Assembly Government
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
10 Comments
To add your voice to Gofal Cymru’s call for an anti-stigma campaign in Wales, visit their Facebook page http://bit.ly/5gF7w5.
Thanks for highlighting this issue. As someone who has suffered from depression in the past it’s good to know there are people willing to take the issue seriously.
Agree with Dyfed. I know of people who have kept their mental illness quiet, have refused to acknowledge it and have gone untreated for years, often with appalling side effects such as collapsed marriages and problems with alcohol, because they have been too fearful of the reaction had they told employers.
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that research paper after research paper has warned against the disastrous effect that mental illness has on the economy, let alone what it does to the individual. Coming on the day that it was revealed that attitudes in this country towards homosexuality – something that was also once stigmatised – have improved immeasurably, perhaps it is time for a real campaign to change opinion on mental illness.
An excellent article- thoughtful and relevant. This piece is particularly apposite in the week we read about changing social attitudes to what were once considered social stigmas. However attitudes towards mental illness remain a challenge to policy makers.
DM
Chair, Assembly’s All Party Group on Mental Health
I agree with David melding that it is a well thought out article.
See Erving Goffman’s book ‘Stigma’ if you have time.
I have known an ex-schoolmaster who was open about his mental health which was detrimental to him. A woman I knew at the tennis club where i used to play had mental health problems and people pulled away from her. The teens did not so much. It’s very sad as I can remember that she did take her own life. She was only early thirties.
It’s a massive problem and challenge you have in trying to change attitudes. It transcends time and culture.
Ancient Athens, even Socrates for his public speaking was seen as a madman by tragedian Aristophanes .
i)•To change public understanding, attitudes and behaviours so that the stigma and discrimination associated with mental ill health is eliminated ;
this first one is a big one. Maybe highlight Sir Winston churchill who suffered from depression, or other great figures.
ii)
•To enhance the ability of people to challenge stigma and discrimination
Educating them to how common mental health problems. Life changes and events can trigger this?
iii)•To ensure that all organisations value and include people with mental health problems and those who support them
this is a noble aim but it will be impossible to regulate or even formulate.
iv)•To improve media reporting of mental ill health
this is a tough one as well. I think Madeline Brindley on the Western Mail is a good journo but the rest of them you wouldnay wanna wipe your bum with them.
I personally think having celebs doing this sort of campaigns is a no no. Celebs are hardly steady eddy characters by and large . More down to earth people would be more powerful.
Hi I have just found your site.
I am a service user from the North of England and have been very publicly challenging stigma with some involvement with the time to change campaign. I don’t reconise any geograpical boundaries, so Hi Wales, from a like minded Geordie.
It would be great if there was a U.K. Wide message forum where every one in the U.K. could have the chance to interact, fighting each other’s causes.
I have my own web site http://www.odesofsurvival.co.uk where I share many of my experiences and challenge negative attitudes.
Regards
Paul Davidson
Gofal Cymru have now launched an online petition, calling for a mental health anti-stigma campaign for Wales. You can sign up at http://bit.ly/afAzD6
I know full well of the stigma attached to mental illness. I for one have suffered from a form of mental illness for the past 10 years and I’m only 26. The looks i receive when people are told about my depression is horrendous, the stigma needs to be lifted somehow.
Cancer was once known as the big C as no one would talk about it. We need to do that about mental illness. It’s not scary, its just a form of illness that can be treated. Please help us lift this stigma.
Hi Bethan, thanks for the comment. At Gofal Cymru, we’re working with our colleagues in Mind Cymru and Hafal to campaign for an anti-stigma campaign for Wales. We want as many people with lived experience as possible to be part of that; the best way to keep up-to-date is by joining our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gofal-Cymru/165650542110.
Hi,
I’m with all of you on this and it’s clear that there are some big names on board, which is always a useful starting point when considering any all-Wales campaign.
I too have lived with poor mental health for the best (or worst) part of 10 years, but have generally functioned to the point where I’ve managed to hold down, what I consider to be fairly good jobs. That’s not to say that other areas of my life haven’t suffered – they have, beyond all recognition.
I’m generally open about my condition, which doesn’t always meet with a favourable response but I’m lucky to have one or two particularly supportive friends and a supportive employer.
I do feel though, that the mental health sector in Wales is not working as effectively or cohesively as it could be. Even before the recession (which is a natural reason to work more co-operatively, share resources, work on joint funding bids etc), you could see that there were pockets of good practice around Wales but, perhaps, that it wasn’t being shared and implemented amongst organisations as well it could be, or that it wasn’t being promoted to the media and general public accordingly.
I don’t know much about the campaign in Scotland, but I find it galling whenever I see posts on Facebook or articles in the press from the England-only Time to Change campaign when we haven’t got a Welsh equivalent. The only obvious campaign that I could see on the Welsh Assembly’s website is ‘Talk to Me’ and while I’m not doubting the value of that campaign one iota, I wouldn’t say that it’s been promoted that widely, or regularly.
Arguably, Wales stands to gain the most, per capita, from an effective mental health sector and campaign than any of the other home regions – we keep hearing of the cost to the economy of poor mental health, so why isn’t the requisite response being made now, when it really would make a difference.
I don’t get on my soapbox that often, but I feel I had to say something. If Wales did have its own campaign, I would love to work on it in some capacity.