What is it?

The campaign is called ‘Time to Change’. Rethink is leading an £8.1m England-wide anti-stigma social marketing campaign to raise awareness of mental health problems and reduce stigma and discrimination. This is one part of a bigger £18m programme funded by Comic Relief and The Big Lottery. The approach is focussed on getting people to talk about mental health.

Time to Change hopes to:

• Create a 5% positive shift in attitudes towards mental health problems by 2012
• Achieve a 5% reduction in discrimination by 2012
• Increase the ability of 100,000 people with mental health problems to address discrimination
• Engage more than a quarter of a million people in physical activity
• Produce a powerful evidence base of ‘what works’.

The anti-stigma campaign itself aims to reach 30 million people - 75% of adults in England.

Attitudes towards mental health

That’s sad, but it’s not me - stigma is often subconscious

Many people who know someone with a mental health problem do not believe that they are stigmatising or discriminating, so it is an invisible issue – even for those who say they have liberal views. This presents a challenge as people do not believe that they are doing anything wrong now. This subconscious stigma is fuelled by fear, ignorance and feelings of inadequacy.

Discrimination? What’s that got to do with mental health?

People do not currently believe that people are discriminated against because of mental health problems. Grounds on which people are seen as being discriminated against include race, sex, sexuality - but not because they have a mental illness. That means that mental health is not seen as a social justice issue that needs to be challenged. Even when people do recognise that people are discriminated against, they don’t believe it’s something that they do.

I wouldn’t want anyone to know

While people in this group don’t believe they discriminate or that discrimination is an issue for people with mental health problems, this group feels the stigma that surrounds mental health. This is shown by the feelings they think they would have if they had a mental health problem – ashamed, embarrassed, afraid, etc.

The fear factor

Fear is the hardest nut to crack, but it is the strongest driver of perceptions around mental health problems. People feel fear around mental health problems in two different ways. Firstly, the sensationalist and violent fear people get from the media. Secondly, everyday fear – fear of what they would do if they were affected by a mental health problem, fear of aggression, arguments, inappropriate or demanding behaviour from people they know with mental health problems.

Lack of understanding and information

In Department of Health surveys and our audience-depth research, there seems to be a link between a lack of knowledge about mental illness and stigmatising attitudes. Our audience research showed that people admit to having a limited understanding – there is a significant ignorance about what to do and how to behave. At the same time, it’s not really perceived as an information gap people want to fill.

There’s not any much connection between my life and mental health problems.

Driving fear, as well as lack of knowledge, is the secrecy and lack of visibility surrounding mental health problems. Visibility is a challenge for everyone - even people who have a close personal connection don’t necessarily see beyond the particular mental health problem of the person they know.

Walking on eggshells

Lack of knowledge around how to behave means that when someone has a mental health problem, people don’t know what say or do and are worried about making things worse – so often do nothing.

Want to know more?

Go to www.time-to-change.org.uk

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