'see me' is due to make us think about the way we support friends and family members with mental health problems, in a new general public campaign to be launched on 15th September

‘see me’ is helping to change the way people think about mental ill-health.  We know that for a fact:  people tell us that, in survey after survey, and we believe them.  But all the nice thoughts in the world won’t matter if they’re not backed up by practical action, so that the 1 in 4 of us who will experience a mental health problem at some time in our lives no longer need fear stigma and discrimination.

So, what’s the reality?  We know, from work carried out by the Scottish Recovery Network, that having support from friends and family is vitally important in supporting recovery from mental ill-health.  We also know, from our own ‘Hear Me’ survey in 2007, that that support is not always there when people need it.  Friends and family members are often likely to reject and exclude the person who most needs their support.  And that hurts.

We’ve spent time over the last six months really exploring how people do respond  – and more importantly why they might ‘feel supportive’ in the abstract, but are so often unable to offer practical support when it’s needed.  These have been among the most useful focus groups we’ve ever run and will give the campaign useful tools for the next phase of our work.  Our resulting TV and radio ads will be launched in mid-September and we’ll post the times when you should be able to see the TV ads onto our new website as soon as we get them.  The theme of both ads is that each of us can do something that makes a difference – and the support that we offer does not have to be huge or difficult.  We’ll be pleased to know what you think!

Above all though, ‘see me’ needs to be a movement of people who want to turn positive thoughts into positive action to end stigma and discrimination.  We hope that you will want to be part of that movement; whether it’s by signing up as a ‘see me’ supporter on our site, putting up our new posters in your local community or by volunteering to speak out about stigma (and how support has helped!) on our website or as part of our new Speakers Bureau due to be piloted over the winter.

We look forward to working together!