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Wales needs a campaign to tackle the stigma around mental health problems
Posted Tuesday 14 December 2010
Mind Cymru today released a key briefing on the discrimination faced by people with experience of mental distress living in Wales.
Click here to read the briefing paper in English and Welsh
The paper is the second in a series of five briefing papers to be published in the lead-up to next year’s National Assembly for Wales elections. This paper highlights the need for a national campaign to tackle discrimination and calls on all political parties and the next Welsh Assembly Government to support this.
Levels of prejudice against people with any sort of mental health problem remain shockingly high:
- 66% of people in Wales would not rent a room in a shared flat to someone with a mental health condition (1)
- 46% of people in Wales think that those who have experienced depression are unsuitable to work as primary school teachers (2)
Lindsay Foyster, Director of Mind Cymru, said:
Mind Cymru welcomes the recent Welsh Assembly Government announcement that significant funding has been allocated for anti-discrimination work in Wales. It is vital that the difficult financial climate does not affect this support, which is desperately needed.
We know that campaigns to tackle discrimination against people with mental health problems have had real success in England and Scotland through the work done by Time to Change and See Me. There’s now a great opportunity for Wales to build on this work and make a positive difference to the lives of people who experience mental distress.
References and notes
| (1) | 2010 YouGov poll commissioned by Time to Change. Total sample size was 2,233 adults, of which 112 are from Wales. Fieldwork was undertaken between 18 and 20 August 2010. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults. |
| (2) | ‘Who do you see?’ Equality and Human Rights Commission Wales, 2008 |
Find out about existing national anti-stigma campaigns in Britain:
- Time to Change in England
- See Me in Scotland
The Equality and Human Rights Commission Wales recently launched further research around the discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems, gypsy travellers, transgender people and asylum seekers and refugees. Read more about the report, Not just another statistic.