90% of mental health sufferers ‘face stigma or discrimination’

By The Press Association4th February 2016News EnglandAbuse, Mental Health, News England, Vulnerable Adults

Nearly 90% of people with mental health problems have experienced stigma or discrimination, a major survey has revealed.

Of more than 7,000 people questioned, 64% said they felt isolated, 61% said they felt worthless and 60% said they felt ashamed as a result of the stigma and discrimination they had faced. A total of 68% said they felt judged.

However, the results revealed that more than half of the respondents (57%) found it easier to talk about mental health problems than in previous years.

Conducted by mental health campaign Time To Change – run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness – the survey also found that 60% felt better once they started talking about their mental health problems, saying they felt relieved and like a weight had been lifted.

The survey, the biggest of its kind, found that as well as 88.2% of those questioned saying they experienced stigma or discrimination, 37.6% said it happened less often than every month, but more than once a year.

It was most common in friendships (63.7%), followed by family life (56.6%) and then in the workplace (56.01%).

The findings are released to coincide with Time To Talk Day – a day when people across the country are encouraged to have open conversations about mental health, in order to tackle the stigma.

The survey questioned 7,001 people in England on Time To Change’s network, aged mainly between 16 and 80.

Mark Schueler, 30, who was diagnosed with depression in late 2014, has organised the SW Coffee Morning to coincide with Time To Talk Day.

He said: “Talking about it has been quite useful to deal with thoughts going around in your head, and talking to people who have also been through clinical depression has been a great help.”

Mr Schueler continued: “I did feel isolated – I still do to an extent. It is very isolating. It was a very difficult thing, you wouldn’t wish it on anyone else.

“The coffee morning is about trying to get people talking about mental health. That has been quite a difficult thing. Even people I have spoken to in social situations, they whisper ‘depression’.

“It is still quite taboo. A lot of people don’t understand much about it.”

Mr Schueler said he hoped his coffee morning would encourage people to openly talk about mental health.

“It is important for people to be able to feel confident about it, because there is an imbalance between physical health and mental health.

“If you break an arm, or have cancer, people are more sympathetic. But if you say you have got depression people would say ‘pull your socks up’, or ‘get on with it’.

“Maybe this morning will get someone who has been suicidal to just talk to someone because it can be quite difficult to take that first step.”

People are invited to meet at the Imperial Durbar in south west London at 10am, before walking to Tooting Bec Common, and then returning to Imperial Durbar for coffee and a chat.

Time To Change is asking people to take part in a nationwide competition to see which county can have the most conversations about mental health and log them on an interactive online map.

More than a thousand organisations will be taking part in Time To Talk Day including O2, Royal Mail, the FA and Everton Football Club.

Sue Baker, director of Time To Change, said: “This survey shows that stigma is still having a huge impact on how people feel about themselves and holding back their lives. We have got to continue to make progress, show that mental health isn’t something to be ashamed of and tackle the causes of stigma and discrimination.”