January 16, 2008

Adam James profiles Sue Baker, head of the largest ever campaign to tackle the stigma associated with mental health

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Sue Baker has, to coin a phrase, got balls.

When travelling via rail from Poole, someone jumped in front of the train. The tragedy caused the journey to be delayed. But one passenger felt it was an opportunity for a wisecrack. "Couldn’t he had waited until we got home,” he declared. Other passengers chuckled. Not so Baker. Instead, she said to the ‘joker’: “I worry about you because if you are depressed you will really struggle. I hope you never experience depression.” The carriage fell into silence.

Such gutso might serve Baker well in her new role as director of Moving People, the largest ever campaign to tackle attitudes and discrimination towards people with mental health problems. The Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief is pumping £18m into the four-year initiative which will be overseen by the Mental Health Media, Mind and Rethink charities and the Institute of Psychiatry.

The campaign will include national media adverts and dozens of anti-discrimination community initiatives. Moving People aims to bring about a measurable 5% decrease in mental illness and 5% reduction in discrimination.

Baker was Mind’s former head of media relations. She also headed a depression awareness campaign in New Zealand. She has, therefore, significant experience to draw upon as, in particular, she works on the national media campaign. Baker says the six months dedicated to researching and co-ordinating this will be money well spent. “The message has got to be right,” emphasises Baker. “And it also has to have some impact on behaviour.”

Baker, who herself has experienced depression, is "passionate” about service user involvement and says it will be central to Moving People. Users will hope they will be represented by the three charities involved in Moving People. Nevertheless, Baker says one service user or care – yet to be nominated – will also join the five stakeholders serving on the management committee. There will also be a 12-member service user and carer advisory group. “A lot of training is now delivered, managed and evaluated by service users,” says Baker. “But while user involvement is easy to say, it is something we will have to achieve”

It is noticeable that Moving People’s stakeholders have distinctly different traditions. The Institute of Psychiatry’s latest medical research on schizophrenia, for example, was an examination of its genetic similarities with bipolar disorder. Such a focus might not sit well with the more radical history of other stakeholders, such as Mind, whose 2007 “champion of the year”, Peter Campbell, has been a member of the Campaign Against Psychiatric Oppression. Will such differences invoke grievances when deciding upon the nuances of a national anti-stigma campaign? Baker foresees no serious problem, saying the mental health sector’s "mentality” is now more focused on working together. “Some of the differences in approaches and guiding models can be overcome,” she says. “Think of the groups involved in the Mental Health Alliance [a network of 77 mental health-related organisations which opposed the government’s mental health bill].” Moreover, she points out, the institute will be more involved in a £2m evaluation of the projects, rather than managing them.

All most everyone in mental health recognises attitudes towards those with a psychiatric diagnosis desperately needs to be tackled. As one traveler on a train back from Poole would testify, Baker will do her bit with added bravado.

What Moving People will do:
* Develop 28 community projects, such as fitness and gardening groups, to support 24,500 people in England with mental health problems to lead healthier lifestyles.
* Spend £8m in social marketing – including media, possibly television, advertisements - to change public attitudes.
* Organise an annual “Get Moving” week, focusing on the benefits of physical activity.
* Empower users to oppose discrimination in their local communities.
* Pursue discrimination against people with mental health problems in the courts

Read also:
Nov 29, 2007: People with mental health problems experience "extreme" level of victimisation - most have suffered theft, been attacked, harassed, sexually assaulted or raped by people in their own community, according to new report.
Nov 29, 2007: Man names himself after psychiatric hospital to combat stigma - Brendan Curran is now Craig Dunain, the name of the former psychiatric hospital in Inverness

Big issue: Service provision

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Reject stigma, don't accept it

Comment from: Harold Maio, Advisory Board of the American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities, Philadelphia, United States
Date: January 23, 2008

The nuances of a national anti-stigma campaign are generally not recognized, it is merely an opportunity to place the term "'stigma" firmly in the public's mind. The public will remember the term far longer with the help of such campaigns.

One of the most insidious impacts of assigning stigmas, indeed their purpose, is victims of that prejudice, like Sue Baker, internalize them, teach them, and assign them. One of the most insidious impacts of a pretense of stigma is editors slip them in equally naively, abetting them.

University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz tested what volunteers remembered from a flyer from the National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. The flyer tried to correct myths about the flu vaccine, such as "only older people need a flu vaccine." Contrary to what the centre expected, instead of retaining the new, correct information, most of the volunteers recalled only the incorrect myths. Repeating and deny the myths only pounded them into the readers' minds.

In direct contrast to the above, women refuted the stigma of rape, they did not work against it, they declined to accept it whatsoever and directed our attention to the assault, the crime, the criminal. Their campaign was successful. Not one single journalist would dare reenter that prejudice into the "news."

Like far too many people in mental health, Sue and you have been trained to accept this prejudice and "work against it." One starts by rejecting it.

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I'll do anything to bring improvement

Comment from: John Baker, mental health service user, London
Date: July 11, 2008

I feel disgusted with the media's haphazard and unprecipitated attack on mental health service users/survivors.

I have encountered much prejudice/discrimination and have the most stigmatising diagnostic label ever known - borderline personality disorder.

This article on stigma was well-written and well-documented. I have also volunteered in various user-led support services in the past and will do anything to rectify the current situation concerning mental health service user/survivors and to improve and enhance their life qualities

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