We’ve signed the pledge!
Advocacy Focus is supporting the national Time to Change campaign, which encourages people to talk more openly about mental health.
Time to Change is campaigning to change how we all think and act about mental health; their aim is to improve attitudes towards people suffering from mental health illnesses and to reduce the stigma or discrimination they may suffer on a daily basis.
Around 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health issue in any given year (and around 1 in 10 young people). An astonishing 9 out of 10 people with mental health problems experience stigma and discrimination.
We want to work towards an attitude and culture that talks about mental health in a positive way.
To encourage openness around mental health issues, we have taken steps as an organisation to better support our staff and their mental and physical health.
Each Advocacy Focus employee has their own Wellness Action Plan to build a better understanding of mental health issues and the team’s ability to support one another. We have also developed Mental Health policies and stress management risk assessments to monitor workplace stress.
We have also engaged the services of James Marquis, a local psychologist and counsellor, who routinely delivers sessions on stress management. He also provides one to one confidential mental health counselling to all of our employees who feel they may need someone to speak to.
Our CEO says:
Time to Change is a really important initiative as mental health has been shrouded by secrecy and stigma for too long. Signing our organisational pledge to tackle mental health discrimination and stigma marks the first step in our ongoing action plan. We are committed to getting 100% behind the campaign with real, meaningful actions to help people in our organisation thrive – and to spread the message to the wider community.
You can support the Time to Change campaign by clicking here.