Education Not Discrimination: rethinking mental health as part of Time to Change

Rethink’s training sessions are based on a long established programme of anti-stigma workshops that has been evaluated by the Institute of Psychiatry. It draws on previous models of anti-stigma and anti-discrimination work used in New Zealand and Scotland.

Utilising the evidence base gained of what works to positively influence the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of groups such as medical students, school children and the police, we have developed a programme of work for use in medical schools, teacher training universities, with school social inclusion officers, trainee head teachers and in GP surgeries.

This programme, Education Not Discrimination forms one of the national projects within Time to Change.

Medical Students 

We are delivering education sessions to 4 medical schools across England, with an anticipated beneficiary group of 3,112 medical students over four years.

Our Mental Health Awareness sessions include: 

• A short lecture of key facts and figures about stigma and discrimination 
• Testimonies from people with direct experience of mental health problems, either personally or as carers
• Role plays in small groups, using professional role players to act the part of a service user and carer. Medical students volunteer to play themselves in a "history-taking" scenario. Groups and actors then give feedback after the role play.

Trainee Teachers

Teachers are in a perfect position to be champions for change within the school environment – both in the classroom and the staffroom.  Since February 2009, we have been providing mental health awareness workshops to trainee teachers at five teacher training universities – Manchester, Sussex (in Brighton), Leicester, Birmingham (Newman University College) and Brighton. 

Sessions to this important group have comprised:

• A presentation about the impact of stigma and discrimination on the grounds of mental illness
  
• “On The Edge” - an interactive drama production developed through collaborative working across psychiatry, applied drama and those with direct experience of psychosis. Available as live role plays and/or a DVD.

The story revolves around a teenage boy, Terry, who experiences the first onset of psychosis and explores the effect this has on him, his family and friends. Participants are given the opportunity to question and discuss the characters reaction to the situation. They can also prepare themselves to do the best they can to make sure a young person in mental distress gets the support they need.

Teachers, Trainee Head Teachers and staff in school with pastoral care remit

Including Senior Management Teachers, Social Inclusion Leads, Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCOs), School Nurses and many more

In order to work more effectively within the school setting, our third audience are the senior teachers who have a key role to play in ensuring a mentally healthy environment for both staff and students;  future head teachers and school social inclusion leads.

Our aim is to provide our training within one of the modules for the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and will include:

• Mental Health Awareness Training as outlined above for trainee teachers and include a screenplay of the ‘On The Edge’ performance

GP surgeries (General Practice staff plus GPs)

GP surgery staff training is being carried out in response to the results of the 2007 Stigma Shout survey, the largest ever survey on mental health stigma and discrimination (informing the Time to Change campaign). GPs have the potential to influence positive change within the sector as well as benefitting from training to raise awareness of the stigma and discrimination which could affect communication with mental health patients and their carers.

There are two core elements to the training:

Mental Health Awareness Training focusing on Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities

• Facts and figures
• Mental health stigma and discrimination, focusing on BME communities
• Pathways to care: current inequalities and their implications
•  Lessons learnt

• Personal testimonies from people with direct experience of mental health problems (Involvement Workers)
• Role plays with professional role players used as a tool to share experiences
• Question and answer session

So far training has been delivered to GP surgeries in Havering and Lambeth, receiving outstanding feedback.  Delivery to more regions and boroughs is currently being planned.

“Combating Stigma” DVD

Each person who receives our training will receive an audience-specific copy of our DVD, ‘Combating Stigma’.