May 04 - Mental Health Europe Launches Anti-Stigma And Discrimination Campaign

Mental Health Europe, the largest European organisation active in the field of mental health, has just launched a new anti-stigma and discrimination campaign: EACH OF US, supported by local mental health organisation Clubhouse Gibraltar. 

The campaign’s objective is to change peoples’ minds about mental health and debunk myths and misconceptions about people with mental health problems. Here's the campaign message from Clubhouse:

Journalists can play a pivotal role in helping us end mental health stigma. We want to encourage journalists to use their influence when reporting on mental health so as not to reinforce misconceptions and stereotypes or create sensationalist articles which can cause huge distress and offence to the one in four people who will experience mental health problems. The language used should be as descriptive as possible, and avoid labelling or stigmatising terms.

The language should be as descriptive as possible and avoid language which is reductive, labelling or stigmatising. For example, a person is not a 'depressive', as that reduces them to a label, but is 'experiencing mental ill health' or 'mental distress'.

What you could use...

• -   ‘a person with a mental health problem’, ‘people with mental health problems’

• - someone who is ‘currently experiencing' or ‘is being treated for...’, ‘service users’

  - people experiencing mental ill health, people experiencing mental distress

  What to avoid...

  - ‘a psycho’ or ‘a schizophrenic’ or ‘a depressive’

  - ‘the mentally ill’

  - ‘people with mental disorders’

  Why the campaign matters

• One in four of us can expect to experience a mental health problem during our lifetimes.

• One in five adolescents in Europe is affected by at least one psychological problem in any given year.

• Three-quarters of European businesses report the presence of at least one psychosocial risk in the workplace (excessive workloads, conflicting demands, poor management, psychological or sexual harassment, lack of support)

What we have planned

• To give impetus to the campaign, we will be asking celebrities, policy-makers, journalists, colleagues, health professionals and anyone supporting our cause to GET INVOLVED online.
• We will also give workshops about mental health in schools and universities as well as businesses and European institutions. The campaign will be translated into more than 10 European languages! 
• Have a look at our myths buster about mental health problems: http://goo.gl/1MYgEB Download our campaign kit here: https://eachofus.eu/campaign-kit/
• Visit the campaign’s website: www.eachofus.eu 

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