'With help, I rediscovered my inner
strength and the will to go on'
- anonymous
What is special about our campaign?
Changing Minds is an anti-stigma campaign
trying to encourage everyone to stop and think about their own
attitudes and behaviour in relation to mental disorders.
- As doctors we try to establish diagnoses and related risk
factors. For the individual affected, this maximises our chances of
predicting the course of their disorder and of advising them about
specific treatments that have proved to be effective.
- Diagnoses have psychological, social and physical elements.
Treatments on offer include psychotherapies, such as cognitive
behaviour therapy (CBT), counselling and family therapy; drug
treatments, like antidepressants; and social interventions, where
doctors try to help improve a person's way of life.
- Whilst these treatments on offer within psychiatry are often
effective, as with other branches of medicine, they cannot always
help. Nor does psychiatry claim to be the only effective approach
for mental health problems.
- Diagnosis runs the risk of attaching an enduring 'label' to a
person, which can become the focus of distorted negative images in
the media and in the public mind. These images can then lead to
further discrimination. In making diagnoses, doctors therefore have
a special responsibility to recognise and respect the uniqueness of
the individual, over and above any diagnostic label.
- People with mental illnesses have been stigmatised over the
centuries and still are today. Psychiatry itself and psychiatrists
are also sometimes stigmatised by others. This campaign aims to
tackle the problem. We are attempting to understand why some people
have a tendency to stigmatise others with mental illnesses, and we
will try to change their minds.