Leicester awarded funding to tackle mental health stigma
…and we are the co-ordinators!
Leicester has been selected as one of eight areas to tackle mental health stigma locally after winning a bid to become one of 2019’s Time to Change hubs. Life Links are thrilled to announce that we will be supporting this important initiative by being Time to Change Leicester’s Hub Co-Ordinator!
Time to Change Leicester will be joining 13 funded hubs across England to help change the way we all think and act about mental health problems. The hub is a partnership between Leicester City Council, Richmond Fellowship and local champions, and will combine the insights of the national Time to Change campaign with local knowledge. It will support communities, workplaces and schools to take action to end negative attitudes and behaviour towards people experiencing mental health problems.
Here’s what key partners said of the announcement:
Cllr Adam Clarke, Deputy City Mayor & public health lead:
“We took the decision bid to be a Time to Change Hub because mental health stigma remains a barrier to mental wellness, and because we are determined to play a central role in removing such barriers both locally and nationally.
“This success, which follows a rigorous and competitive application process, now places Leicester at the vanguard of the drive to end mental health stigma.
“We’re committed to working with local champions from all backgrounds to develop initiatives that will help to ensure mental health is more talked-about, better understood and better accepted in all our communities.”
Christine Lawrence, Richmond Fellowship Midlands Locality Manager:
“Richmond Fellowship is delighted to be a key partner in the Leicester Time to Change Hub.
“Many of our volunteers and recovery workers have personal experience of mental ill health. This is because a vital aspect of our approach is that we work together with the people we support as equal partners to design and plan services together.
“Work to combat stigma is central to our role in the mental health resilience and recovery service, I am really excited at this opportunity and looking forward to working with our partners in moving this campaign forward and addressing this across all our communities in Leicester”
Katie Stone, Local Time to Change Champion:
“It’s great that Leicester has become a Time to Change hub. Through the Time to Change campaign, I have been able to deliver a series of Writing for Mental Health workshops, which are designed to help people manage their own mental health. Being able to share the therapeutic benefits of writing with others is a huge passion of mine.”
Jo Loughran, Director at Time to Change:
“When one in four of us will fight a mental health problem in any given year and suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 40, it’s vital that we join together to end mental health stigma. Our network of Time to Change hubs are able to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in their community.”
Time to Change, the national campaign run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, launched the first regional hubs in March 2017. The announcement of eight further funded hubs, including Leicester, is part of the campaign’s three-year plan to establish a network of hubs across England to provide a focus for local campaigning work.
Each funded hub is provided with a £15,000 start-up budget along with £10,000 for a champions fund, where local champions can bid for funding to run stigma-busting events and activities within their area.
Since their initial launch, Time to Change hubs have successfully campaigned to end mental health stigma and discrimination. Their work has ranged from stopping a stigmatising theatre show ‘Psycho Asylum’ from touring the country to supporting Time to Talk Day (7 February 2019), running events and delivering campaigns aimed at improving understanding and respect for people living with a mental health problem.
Help end the stigma
Time to Change Champions help us reach out to local communities to raise awareness of mental health problems. You can express your interest in becoming Time to Change volunteer! Get in touch today and we’ll get back to you.
Did you know?
Time to Change is a growing movement of people changing how we all think and act about mental health problems. Our voice is stronger and louder thanks to funding by the Department of Health and Social Care, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund using funding from the National Lottery. Our campaign is run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, and thousands more organisations have joined us to make change happen.
Richmond Fellowship is a registered charity and one of the largest voluntary sector providers of mental health services in England. We support over 9,000 people living with mental ill health every year.
Richmond Fellowship deliver a mental health, resilience and recovery service across Leicester City. The service – Leicestershire Life Links has its own unique user friendly website and is available in many languages.
