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By Newsdesk
Thursday, August 9, 2012.
Unique
story-telling performances, a rap sensation, an interactive game, and
the live broadcast of personal stories on mental illness from refugees
are just some of the ways that mental health discrimination will be
tackled in Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities with new funding
from Time to Change, England's biggest mental health anti-stigma
programme.
Earlier
this year Time to Change, run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental
Illness and funded by the Department of Health and Comic Relief,
launched a new grants fund that will see approximately £2.7 million
awarded to around 70 local community groups over the next three years to
tackle mental health stigma and discrimination at community levels.
A
total of £533,600 has been awarded from the first round to 16 new
projects, with almost half (48%) focused on work with people from BME
communities. 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.
Some of the successful projects include:
-
'Challenge Minds, Inspire Change', a project run by The Afiya Trust
with an advisory group of ten people from BME communities with
experience of mental health problems that 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 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.
-
'Post-traumatic Resilience Project' run by Refugee Radio,
where ten refugees and asylum seekers who have mental health problems
will put together a series of events for the wider refugee community. At
these events, people who do not have mental health problems will have
the chance to talk to and learn from those who do. Extracts from these
conversations will be recorded and made into a radio documentary. This
programme will be broadcast on FM radio, Refugee Week radio, and it will
be available as a podcast.
- 'Faith, Culture and Mental Health - the Hidden Story' run
by Mind in Tower Hamlets and Newham in partnership with the East London
Mosque and the University of East London Student Union will
use their extensive networks of to reach the local community. Using a
range of small events, stalls and story telling, volunteers with
personal experience of mental health problems will engage the public and
share their experiences.
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.
Patrick
Vernon from The Afiya Trust said: "We are delighted to receive funding
from Time to Change and we can't wait to get started with our work
across the country. We know that there is a lot of stigma within BME
communities and we really hope that our project will dig deep into the
community to get the message across that mental health is not something
to ignore and shy away from. If people are ill they need to get the help
and support they need to get better and people can't do this if their
illness is swept under the carpet."
Sue
Baker, Director of Time to Change, said: "We know that one of the most
powerful ways to change attitudes is when people take the lead in
driving change within their own communities so we are very excited to be
able to award these grant funds. What works in one community may not
work in another, so through the grants fund we are putting the power to
make change happen locally in 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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