Media volunteering: what's involved?

Raise awareness of mental health issues by sharing your experiences.

Journalists often use real-life stories or comments from individuals to show how a particular issue can affect people on a day to day basis. For example, if a journalist is writing an article on bipolar disorder, they might want to interview a media volunteer about their experiences. If Mind is running a campaign and a journalist wants to create a story around it, they might ask for a media volunteer to be interviewed for a news story or programme, to discuss how that issue has affected their life and their mental health.

Media volunteers are extremely important to Mind's work. Journalists from a huge variety of media contact the media team on a daily basis, and are frequently looking to interview people with particular experiences of mental distress. Being able to include a 'human interest' element can make or break a story in the media. Often, real life examples are what bring an issue to life, and allow the audience to understand and empathise with issues around mental health.

What's involved?

Over the years our media volunteers have helped with a whole raft of media work, from appearing on Channel 4 News speaking anonymously about employment, to an interview feature with The Independent on Sunday Magazine about experiences of depression, or featuring in a glossy magazine talking about how exercise can boost mental wellbeing.

Mind media volunteers can be interviewed anonymously, and we take confidentiality very seriously - we never send someone's details to a journalist without permission. If a volunteer does agree to an interview, Mind supports them both before and after the event.

Mind Media Officer Camilla and Media Volunteer Carlene have written about what's involved —
Blog post Speaking out against discrimination

Volunteer with us

If you would like to become a Mind Media Volunteer then please keep an eye on the media opportunities section of our website, which we update regularly.

If you haven't already, it's also worth joining Mind's Facebook page and following us on Twitter where we post media volunteer call-outs too. If you would like paper versions of the latest media opportunities please phone the team on 0208 522 1743.