Stuff Stigma – launch of Norfolk mental health campaign to banish bigots

A pioneering campaign is to be launched in Norwich on Monday March 31 in an attempt to banish prejudice towards people with mental health problems. 

The three-year campaign, appropriately called Stuff Stigma, will be run by mental health charity Rethink, which has a track record in coordinating anti-stigma campaigns of this kind.  

The campaign aims to:

• Increase mental health awareness among people in Norwich by 2010
• Change people’s behaviour towards people with mental illness by 2010
• Provide opportunities for mental health service users to engage with the community through physical activity

During the campaign various activities will take place to expose and eradicate the discrimination faced by people with mental illness. These activities include anti-stigma weeks in schools and colleges, mass walks, and the publication of a book called “Normal for Norfolk” which will include a collection of inspiring mental health stories from local people. Through these events mental health service users and the local community will interact in more depth than they would do otherwise. 

Norfolk resident Robert Ashton, chair of the Stuff Stigma Think Tank which is steering the campaign, says: “Stuff Stigma is different from all the other initiatives that seek to banish stigma. Rather than simply telling people that stigma is bad we’re providing practical tools to help them create more tolerant, understanding communities, at work, at play and in public.”

The campaign will be launched at a conference on Monday March 31, 1345-1700 at the Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich. Dr Roman Krznaric, a social change consultant, will be the guest speaker.