Anti-Stigma Leeds
The Council, NHS, community groups, charities, and employers in Leeds are all coming together to change how we think and act about mental health.
In 2017 Leeds won a regional bid to become one of the first national Time to Change Hubs: a partnership of local organisations and mental health champions committed to improving local attitudes and behaviours towards people experiencing mental health problems.
Since then,
Mentally Healthy Leeds External link has led the Anti-Stigma Leeds partnership. This builds on the work of the Time to Change Leeds Hub through developing wider partnerships across the city and engaging new volunteer Champions with the focus of reducing the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health.
Anti-Stigma Leeds aims to:
- support people with personal experience of mental health problems to be at the heart of anti-stigma work
- embed anti-stigma work locally in workplaces and other community settings
- proactively campaign to improve people’s attitudes and behaviours towards mental health
- ensure the sustainability and continuing development of this work through the Mentally Healthy Leeds service
Champions
Anti-Stigma Leeds believes that people with their own experience of mental health problems (also known as lived experience) should be leading activity around combatting stigma and discrimination experienced by those with mental health problems.
There are many ways to get involved as a Champion in Leeds, including:
- developing local campaigns through being involved in the Champion Campaign Group
- attending training to help support anti-stigma work and for personal development
- championing anti-stigma in your everyday life through sharing your lived experience (also known as social contact)
- attending the Anti-Stigma Leeds steering group
What is social contact?
External link.
Further information
Mentally Healthy Leeds External link is commissioned by Public Health and is delivered by Touchstone, The Conservation Volunteers, Community Links, and Oblong. Its three main outcomes are: reducing social isolation, increasing resilience, and reducing stigma and discrimination across the city.
If you are interested in becoming an Anti-Stigma Champion or just want to know more, contact
Mentally Healthy Leeds.