Rethink’s mental health anti-stigma campaign results and Churchill stunt sets example for national campaigns

14 July 2006

Rethink severe mental illness today (July 14th) published the successful results of its month-long Anti-Discrimination Site pilot in Norwich in March this year. The campaign which included the controversial media stunt of a statue of Winston Churchill in a straightjacket, aimed to shift people’s attitudes towards mental illness through thought-provoking advertising, fundraising, local themed activities, publicity events and PR campaigns. The statue symbolised the way people with mental illness are stigmatised in society and was a celebration of the life of a man who triumphed over mental health problems.

Speaking about the campaign’s results, Rethink Director of Public Affairs, Paul Corry said: “People with severe mental illness consistently report the stigma and discrimination surrounding their condition as a major barrier to social inclusion, access to services and recovery. While there are major PR-led campaigns to combat stigma in Scotland and New Zealand and plans to introduce them in the United States, the Westminster government has rejected the approach.

“The campaign clearly demonstrates that such approach in England, Wales and Northern Ireland can prove successful in raising awareness and shifting negative public attitudes to mental illness and help solve the three biggest mental health problems; prejudice, ignorance and fear.”

A benchmark and post-campaign public opinion survey carried out by an independent company showed the following:-

Pre-campaign: 15 per cent of people said they had experienced a mental health problem
Post campaign: 30 per cent of people said they had experienced a mental health problem

Pre-campaign: 35 per cent of people said they cared for someone with a mental health problem
Post campaign: 54 per cent of people said they cared for someone with a mental health problem

Pre-campaign: 32 per cent of people thought a person with the early signs of schizophrenia would go on to do something violent to someone else
Post campaign: 24 per cent of people thought a person with the early signs of schizophrenia would go on to do something violent to someone else

Pre-campaign: 40 per cent agreed strongly that they wouldn’t want anyone to know about a personal mental health problem Post campaign: 22 per cent agreed strongly that they wouldn’t want anyone to know about a personal mental health problem

On Churchill
21 per cent said unprompted that they had seen or heard something about the Churchill statue
59 per cent said that it was OK to use the statue.

Notes to editors

Rethink Anti-Discrimination Site (RAS) Pilot Evaluation:
Executive Summary

Introduction
The primary objective of the month long campaign in Norwich was to raise public awareness of the stigma associated with mental illness and the discrimination that people with mental health problems face in their daily lives. A secondary objective of the pilot was to increase awareness of Rethink which is known to be poor among the general public. It is important to emphasise that the month long campaign was seen as a beginning of a set of activities not an end point. It will take years to ‘stamp out stigma’ however research does demonstrate that a key component of any programme of activities is a well co-ordinated launch linking public promotional activities (such as advertising) and targeting initiatives (such as face to face meetings). We will use our Norwich experience to help inform the planning and delivery of the second Rethink RAS in Northern Ireland January 2007.

Method
The evaluation team tracked the impact of the month long campaign using four data sources:

A commissioned public attitude telephone survey at baseline and follow-up run by Marketry;
Media coverage monitoring;
Rethink management information;
Interviews with Rethink staff and volunteers.

Results
Public attitude data was collected from 104 people at baseline and 125 at follow-up. Some of the key results are listed below:

Awareness of Rethink

There was a 7% increase in awareness of any mental health organisation across the sample (63% to 70%).
Unprompted awareness of Rethink rose from 2% to 9%.
When asked of whether they had heard of Rethink, prompted awareness rose from 13% to 31%.

Mental health awareness

Double the number of people (15% to 30%) said they had experienced mental health problems after the campaign.
Post campaign only 2% compared to 14% pre-campaign said they couldn’t remember any mental health problems.
The biggest shift was of 19% more people naming depression, 16% anxiety, 14% Alzheimer’s, 12% dementia, 11% schizophrenia. There was also a 10% increase of people who had heard of psychosis

Attitudes to people with mental health problems

Before the campaign, 40% people agreed strongly that they wouldn’t want anyone to know if they had mental health problems. This decreased to 22%.
Fewer people held strong views that people with mental illness are often dangerous after the campaign (21% as compared to 33%) and should not be allowed to do important jobs (14% as compared to 24%)
Fewer people strongly agreed that people are generally sympathetic and caring to people with mental health problems (5% after the campaign 13% before). This may be the result of a campaign highlighting the role of stigma and discrimination affecting the lives of people with mental health problems.

The post campaign reported key messages in marketing activities were:

Mental illness can happen to anyone
Mentally ill people are ordinary people
Mentally ill people are not dangerous
Mentally ill people can do a job
Mentally ill people can recover
People shouldn’t be scared of dealing with mental health

Feedback on Churchill statue from the public

80% of all respondents had heard about the Churchill statue, but only 18% of these were aware that it was associated with Rethink.
59% of people thought that it was OK that Rethink used the statue.
49% of people thought it was wrong to take the statue down.
52% of people thought charities using controversy to raise awareness was acceptable, 10% felt it was not, and the rest were undecided.

Rethink information:

Media monitoring for March 2006 listed 224 pieces (172 connected to RAS) compared to 38 media mentions in March 2005.
We saw increased contacts to Rethink via the web site during the RAS, but not to our Front Door telephone service.
We received 123 new members to Rethink for Norfolk March 2006 compared to 0 in January and 2 for February 2006.
486 new donors were recruited and have started contributing to the work of Rethink.

Contact details for further information

Liz Nightingale, Media Volunteers Manager:
tel 020 7330 9112, mobile 07870 204593 or

Alita Howe, Media Officer:
tel 020 7330 9149, mobile 07918 660760

For out of hours media enquiries, please call 07775 585178

About Rethink severe mental illness
Rethink, the leading national mental health membership charity, works to help everyone affected by severe mental illness recover a better quality of life. We aim to provide hope and empowerment through effective services and support to all those who need us and campaign for change through greater awareness and understanding.
For further information on the charity and its work, visit: www.rethink.org or call 0845 456 0455.