Asda and Tesco withdraw 'mental health patient' costumes from sale

The supermarket chains have withdrawn the staggeringly offensive costumes.

Tesco has now removed their ‘psycho ward’ fancy dress costume from their website. This comes after supermarket chain Asda withdrew their "mental health patient" fancy dress costume from sale.

Sue Baker, Director of Time to Change, England's biggest anti-stigma campaign, run by Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, says:

"Asda and Tesco have shown themselves to be extremely misguided with their ‘mental health patient’ and ‘psycho ward’ fancy dress costumes. It is staggeringly offensive to the one in four of us affected by mental health problems and our families and friends, and troubling that some businesses are still so out of touch with the public mood.

However it is encouraging to see the groundswell of outcry on Twitter and that our voices are being heard. We hope this will urge Asda, Tesco and other retailers and manufacturers to review their processes and consider taste and decency on mental health grounds, to avoid fuelling stigma and discrimination that are so damaging for large numbers of the population."

Asda and Tesco have indicated today that they intend to make a donation to Mind.