In this blog post I have compiled a list, like I did last year, of this years biggest stories on mental health.
January saw the TV screenings of Time To Change's advert on mental health stigma, encouraging viewers to start conversations about mental health, with an aim to remove the 'fear and awkwardness that stop people from talking about mental health' [1], this time focusing more on people that do not necessarily have much knowledge about mental health but helping them to feel that they can start a conversation.
May 16th saw Parliament give another debate on mental health, following the landmark debate that occurred last June; where a number of MPs spoke out about their experiences of mental health problems for the first time. Paul Burstow, Charles Walker and Madeleine Moon initiated the debate, and covered a wide range of subjects including: the addressing of inequalities between physical and mental health services; discussion of improving acute and crises services; tackling the issues of the inequalities experienced by ethnic minority in mental health services; talks over making improvements to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA); as well as talks over providing better support for people with mental health problems wishing to enter the workplace, as well as, working with employers to build better support working environments. If you wish to read more you can read the proceedings in the Hansard here.
Early June saw Stephen Fry speak out about his experiences of bipolar disorder, suicidal feelings, and his suicide attempt last year. Whilst Fry has been commended for his openness and raising awareness of bipolar depression and suicide, unfortunately there have been one too many insensitive troglodytes making sarky, misinformed comments - highlighting that there is still quite a way to go in tackling mental health stigma.
July witnessed BBC 3's 'It's A Mad World Season', a week of programmes that covered a wide range of topics surrounding mental health, similar to the project carried out by Channel 4 (Channel 4 Goes Mad) in the previous year. The week saw the broadcasting of a number of documentaries and programmes that explored mental health units, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, suicide, eating disorders, as well as delving into other issues such as the wall of stigma that surrounds mental health, as well as the effects of funding cuts to health services.
In August Time to Change launched its 'It's time to talk' campaign, with an aim to stamp out the stigma surrounding mental health, as well as encouraging others to talk about mental health. Ambassadors such as Frankie Sandford, Ruby Wax, Rachel Bruno, Russell Kane and many more wore #TimeToTalk temporary tattoos and took to social networking sites to help further the campaign.
 |
| My #TimeToTalk tat |
Late September experienced an uproar when supermarkets Asda and Tesco, as well as on-line retailer Amazon, were selling 'mental patient' fancy dress costumes. After many complaints and petitions, the supermarkets, at last, withdrew these 'costumes', apologized and made donations to mental health charities. Whilst such an atrocity should have never happened in the first place, this gave us an opportunity to see the work we have ahead of us, as well as how many people are willing to stand for mental health and challenge the prejudices and stigmas that surround it.
October saw another uproar, at Thorpe Park's 'The Asylum'. The 'attraction' included walking through a mock psychiatric hospital, whereby 'actors' would pretend to be mental patients; some of which jumping down from fences, jumping out onto visitors and others chasing them with chainsaws. Thousands signed a petition to urge the park to close the 'attraction' and to rename it. A spokeswoman for Thorpe park said that there are going to be meetings at some time after the new year; as of yet, however, we are still unsure as whether such an appalling attraction is yet to see another year.
2013, in my opinion, has been a notable year for mental health; it has seen quite a few bricks removed from the wall of stigma; however, more still needs to be done - not only to keep breaking down this wall, but also removing those stubborn bricks, as well as preventing these bricks being piled back on. Let us see what 2014 has in store.
Wishing each and every one of you all the best for the new year!
BMNM.
No comments:
Post a Comment