Scottish Anti-Stigma Campaign Welcomes Successful English Bid

The Big Lottery Fund has announced  an award of £16 million from its well-being programme, matched by a further £2 million from Comic Relief to support ‘Moving People’, a mental health charity partnership led by Mental Health Media, Mind, Rethink and Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.

‘Moving People’ promises to change the culture of mental health forever in a ground-breaking bid to battle the growing problem of mental health stigma and discrimination, aiming to reach some 30 million people across England.

In light of this announcement Linda Dunion, campaign director of ‘see me’ has issued the following statement welcoming the successful English bid: “I am delighted that our English colleagues have successfully won funding for a major anti-stigma programme. In Scotland, the ‘see me’ campaign has been funded by government for the past five years.

“In that time we have seen improvements in public attitudes and behaviour towards people with experience of mental ill-health in Scotland.  It is good to know that the ‘see me’ model has helped inform the development of the successful bid. We will be working closely with the English anti-stigma consortium to maximise the benefits of north-south co-operation as the programme goes forward, and to carry on learning from each others’ experiences.”