Name: Emily Shaw

*Social Action Research

The client: Mind

Overview of the client.

Who are they, when did they start, why did they start, what do they do, how are they funded?

Mind are a charity who aim to try and provide support and advice to those who are experiencing mental health issues. Mind campaign to help improve services, promote understanding and raise awareness. ‘We won't give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect.’ www.mind.org.uk.Mind was founded in 1946 and was originally known as the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH). It was from 3 voluntary organisations which provided care for ‘maladjusted, emotionally disturbed or mentally handicapped to any degree.’ at the end of the second world war. In 1972 the name MIND was introduced and then later altered to the lowercase ‘mind’ in the 90’s. Mind is only run of donations, sponsorships, grants and also operates charity shops across England and Wales but do not accept any donations from pharmaceutical companies.Mind now have more than 140 ‘local minds’ which offer more specialised support based on the communities which they support.

The issues:

Your client might advocate on a number of different yet related issues.

What issues your client campaign on?

What are some of the impacts they have managed to achieve?

What are they still hoping to achieve?

Mind campaign on a variety of different issues to do with all aspects of mental health from the Time to Change campaign which aimed to reduce discrimination against people with mental health issues, to the crisis care where peoples lives come crashing down in a mental health crisis, crisis care is their to help rebuild peoples lives. They have a variety of campaigns such as Find the Words, Crisis Care, Life support, Become a Campaigner, Time to Change, Blue Light programme and the Heads Together campaign. The Heads Together campaign aimed to change the national conversation on mental health so that people can feel comfortable with their everyday mental wellbeing, they also wanted to ensure that people can support their friends and families through difficult times and that stigma no longer prevents people getting the help that they need this campaign was led by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. The Blue Light Programme campaign was to help a different group of people as when Mind carried out some research they found that members of the emergency services were most likely to experience mental health problems then anyone else but they were also less likely to ask for help. The Blue Light Programme aims to deliverer mental health support to the emergency services staff. In contrast the Life Support campaign helps people with mental health issues carry on with their day to day lives and helps them to get to grips with normal everyday life like filling in forms, dealing with debts and finances and helps them to reconnect with the community and feel part of the community again.

The issues:Mind have managed to achieve many things with their campaigns such as;2013Mental Health (Discrimination) Act 2013: After many years of campaigning, this Act removed the last significant forms of discrimination from law. It repeals legislation that prevented people with mental health problems from serving on a jury, being a Director of a company or serving as an MP.2012Parity of esteem: An amendment was put forward to the Health and Social Care Bill by Mind, Rethink Mental Illness and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Centre for Mental Health and the Mental Health Foundation. This was passed in February 2012 and clarified that mental health should be treated on an equal footing with physical Health.2011Time to Change Phase 2: Along with our Partners, Rethink Mental Illness, we secured funding from Comic Relief and the Department of Health to continue our Time to change anti-stigma campaign into 2015.2010Equality Act: Mind secured our key aim for the Equality Bill when an amendment introducing a ban on the use of pre-employment health questionnaires was passed successfully, after months of campaigning in parliament. Employers are longer be able to ‘weed out’ job applicants by requiring them to disclose their mental health history on an application form or at interview.2009Time to Change: Mind partnered with Rethink to launch the groundbreaking Time to Change campaign to challenge stigma and discrimination. The first stage of the awareness-raising campaign- and England-wide media blitz- was a staggering success. Millions of people in England saw our broadcast, print and tune ads. Mental Health Media: Mind joined forces with the respected charity Mental Health Media at the start of 2009. When they joined Mind, MHM brought their prestigious Mental Health Media Awards.2008Seroxat ban for under-18s: As a result of our campaigning and evidence pulled together with the BBC current affairs programme Panorama, changes were made to prohibit the prescription of this medication to people aged under 18. It was proved there was an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and acts of self-harm in those who took it.2007We need to talk: This campaign was hugely successful in terms of raising the need to invest in psychological therapies in the NHS. As part of a coalition with four other leading mental health charities, Mind argued for a range of psychological therapies to be made available to everyone. In October 2007 the Government announced £170 million of investment in psychological therapies. This will greatly improve access and means that people experiencing distress have greater choice and control over the services they need. As well as many other things. Mind’s overall goal is to not give up campaigning and raising money until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect. In terms of the near future within 2016-2021 Mind’s strategy is to aim on ‘Building on Change’ to help people take part in society equally, help people to stay well with resilience-boosting community services, giving people choice by improving access to high-quality information therefore creating a new one to one service, improving services and support, making access to services equal for everyone and to put excellence at the heart of Mind’s organisation.

Facts and figures:

Use this space to highlight key facts and figures related to your client and the social issue you are trying to tackle. These could be very useful later on in your project as you try to raise awareness. Information from Mind’s website--1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in any given year-57 million prescriptions for anti-depressants were administered at a cost to the NHS of over £262 million- an increase of 46% since 2012-It’s estimated that only 25% of people with mental health problems receive support each year.-During the last parliament, funding for mental health services in England was cut by 8.25% which is £600 million-Around 5,140 people took their own lives in England and Wales in 2013, an average increase of 4% since 2012 with a 23% rise in wales-50% of people wait over 3 months for talking therapies and over 105,000 people spent time in hospital because of their mental health NHS Confederation information--‘Over one million women (1,004,227) were in contact with mental health and learning disability services in 2014/15. This is higher than the number of men (829,677) and equates to 54.7 per cent of the total number of people over the year.’ -After the Time to Change Campaign ‘The number of people acknowledging that they know someone close to them who has had a mental illness increased from 58 per cent in 2009 to 65 per cent in 2014.’-‘A survey of over 900 people by Rethink Mental Illness, published in 2015, found that 67 per cent of people with mental illness who were accessing benefits said 51 they wanted to work or were looking for work.’