Mental health problems are common – but nearly nine out of ten people who experience them say they face stigma and discrimination as a result. This can be even worse than the symptoms themselves. Time to Change is England’s biggest program to challenge mental health stigma and discrimination.
Our aim is to start a conversation or hopefully thousands of conversations.
We want to empower people with mental health problems to feel confident talking about the issue without facing discrimination. And we want the three quarters of the population who know someone with a mental health problem to talk about it too.
Weve come up with a wide range of projects, engaging people in all sectors and communities, encouraging them to start a dialogue and hopefully leading to a change in behaviour. They include:
- A national high-profile marketing and media campaign, aimed at reaching 29 million adults to change their attitudes and behaviour towards people with mental health problems
- Community activity and events that bring people with and without mental health problems together
- Work with children and young people, to change their attitudes and behaviour towards mental health
- A £2.7m grants scheme to fund grassroots projects, led by people with mental health problems, that will engage communities in meaningful conversations about mental health
- A programme to support a network of people with experience of mental health problems to take leadership roles in challenging discrimination, within their own communities and as part of Time to Change
- Strategic work with organisations from all sectors to improve policy and practice around mental health discrimination
- A programme of media engagement to improve media reporting and representations of mental health issues
- Focused work with Black and Minority Ethnic communities, starting with African and Caribbean audiences
