An Update from Time to Change – 25 November 2020
We wanted to get in touch with you following our last email announcing the closure of Time to Change on 31 March 2021, as we said that we would keep you up to date with developments.
We know that many of you were distressed to hear the news, and we are very grateful for all of your messages of support.
We are incredibly proud of what Time to Change has achieved but, like you, we know there is still more to be done. Our research shows that certain groups have not yet felt the benefit of improvements in public attitudes or behaviour change – including those living with less understood diagnoses such as schizophrenia or people from black and minority ethnic communities.
Sadly, we will not be able to carry out this vital work but we are focusing our efforts on making sure that our ambition is driven forward within the work of our charity partners, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.
While we do not have all the answers now, we are doing everything we can to make sure that you can continue campaigning and challenging mental health stigma with the support of our charity partners. So please bear with us while we put these plans in place.
In addition, we have written to the Government asking them to agree to our three point plan to ensure that they continue to address mental health stigma and discrimination into the future.
Stigma still exists
We believe that ending mental health stigma and discrimination must be the cornerstone of any national mental health policy, and it is the responsibility of Government to lead the way. We have written a joint letter to Government with Mind and Rethink Mental Illness outlining our three point plan to ensure they continue to address mental health stigma and discrimination.
Time to Talk Day
The continuation of Time to Talk Day is just one of the elements of our campaign that we are talking to our charity partners, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness about. Make sure you’re signed up to take part in Time to Talk Day 2021. We need your help to get the nation talking about mental health on Thursday 4 February 2021.
Sharing our knowledge
Time to Change is a successful behaviour change campaign that has seen public attitudes to mental health improve by 12.7% in almost 15 years. We have created a series of ‘how to guides’ to share our skills and experience to help support behaviour change campaigns into the future.