Norman Lamb writes: Time to change
Time to Change and end the stigma and discrimination that faces people with mental health problems
Over the next few weeks’ telly-watching you may see adverts encouraging people to talk about mental health. For those of you that can’t wait, you can watch them online here. These adverts are part of the Time to Change campaign, England’s biggest ever attempt to end the stigma and discrimination that faces people with mental health problems. This is a brilliant campaign. I remember speaking at its launch back in 2008. In the time since then, it has made a real difference.
It can be extraordinarily tough to talk about mental health problems, and this only adds to the hardship caused by the illness itself. I welcome the fact that more and more people in the public eye have been speaking up about their own experiences – showing that mental health problems can affect anyone, in any walk of life.
During the debate on mental health at Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton a few weeks ago, many speakers, movingly, shared their personal experiences. Others made reference to mental health’s historical status as ‘the poor relation’ in health circles. This is something I am determined to change and the government’s mental health strategy clearly states that mental health will be given equal priority with physical health. I want to see us doing more to make that commitment a reality. It cannot be just rhetoric. This campaign is one small step in the right direction.
The Time to Change campaign is funded by the Department of Health together with Comic Relief. Last week on World Mental Health day the department became the first government department to sign up to the campaign. Many NHS trusts, PCTs and local authorities have already pledged their support – along with Citizens Advice, Comic Relief and the Premier League, among others. At the launch, I committed to doing everything I could to spread the word across Government. The whole of Government should demonstrate best practice in the way it treats staff with mental health problems.
If you want to bring the campaign to your own workplace then advice about how to do so is available online, along with resources for managers and employers and tips to help start a conversation about mental health.
One in four of us will experience a mental health problem in any given year – so let’s stop being afraid to talk about it.
* Norman Lamb MP is Liberal Democrat Minister of State at the Department of Health
