Shift Update - October 2009

[Shift]

Shift Update - October 2009
Shift is an initiative to tackle stigma and discrimination surrounding
mental health issues in England. Our aim is to create a society where
people who experience mental health problems enjoy the same rights and
opportunities as other people. Shift will run until March 31st 2011.

++ Media ++
Shift is commissioning a six-month research project into TV
representations of mental illness. The findings will be used to engage
TV producers and script-writers in a dialogue around how they
represent mental illness. They will be presented at an event attended
by leading TV figures next year, inspiring the industry to portray
people with mental health problems in an innovative, fresh and
creatively exciting new way, challenging tired, old stereotypes.

Shift has provided media training to psychiatrists from the Royal
College of Psychiatrists to help them set news stories about mental
illness and violence in context. Spokespeople from the College are now
commentating on homicide stories, including for instance the recent
'Peter Bryan' homicide inquiry, stressing that most people with mental
health problems are not violent. This is part of wider efforts to get
across the 'other side of the story', when the media reports on
homicides perpetrated by mental health patients, by supporting NHS
trusts involved in homicide cases. We are also lobbying the Press
Complaints Commission to provide better guidance to newspaper editors
on reporting these stories and representing mental illness.

We are again delivering our popular workshops on reporting mental
illness and suicide to trainee journalists at more than a dozen
postgraduate and vocational journalism colleges and universities from
the new academic year.

The charity Ok2b has been commissioned to run a web-based 'Stigma
Watch' system called Words Matter, enabling people to praise and
complain about media coverage. It will be marketed to service users
and relevant mental health related organisations later this year.

Shift will be publishing a package of research about the media this
winter. It will include 'Mind over Matter III', our annual analysis of
media coverage. This report analyses coverage from March and October
2008. It will be compared against reports from the previous three
years to see if there have been any improvements. The research will
also include the findings of focus groups, held to examine the role of
the media in the shaping public fears of people with mental health
problems, as well as a survey of how well newspaper readers think
their paper covers mental health. It will also include the findings of
research into how the mental health of Black and Minority Ethnic
groups are reported in Black and Minority Ethnic and mainstream press.

To download a copy of the last Mind Over Matter report, visit:
http://snipurl.com/mindovermatter2

Shift is continuing to operate its Speakers Bureau, a bank of 50
people with mental health problems and carers who talk to the media.
10 more speakers from across England are being recruited to the
bureau.

To find out more about the Shift Speakers' Bureau, visit:

http://www.shift.org.uk/speakersbureau

Shift is also promoting our 'What's the story?' guidance for
journalists on reporting mental illness and suicide at the National
Union of Journalists and the Society of Editors annual conferences. To
find out more about What's the Story, visit:

http://www.shift.org.uk/mediahandbook

++ Black and Minority Ethnic Communities ++

Shift has commissioned several organisations to undertake work on
Black and Minority Ethnic issues because people with mental health
problems from these communities often experience a double stigma -
racial discrimination, as well as discrimination because of their
mental ill-health.

Four regional training days are being organised for Community
Development Workers about using Open Secrets to raise awareness and
reduce stigma and discrimination. These will be held between November
and December 2009. Shift and the DRE programme are planning to provide
CDWs with a stock of compilation DVDs of different films about mental
health experiences and people from BME communities. These will be
accompanied by pause & talk guides developed to assist CDWs in using
video as a way of increasing awareness and challenging discrimination.
The opportunity, once trained, will be for CDWs to lead regional and
local stakeholder events between January and March 2010 using the
compilation DVD supplied by Shift/DRE. Shift and DRE plan to have web-
based library of films available for CDWs from March 2010.

The award winning film Open Secrets was publicly launched at the
Fourth Annual Delivering Race Equality conference on 12 March 2009 and
has received very positive feedback. The trailer for 'Open Secrets' is
available on the Shift website and is being shown at Shift exhibition
stands at numerous National conferences around England. Interested
parties should contact their Community Development Worker to view the
film.

The Newcastle and Gateshead Art Studio 'Black and White' photographic
exhibition has been produced by members of a community group in
Newcastle. The photographs have been exhibited in North East England.
The photos are available via the Shift website:

http://shift.org.uk/work/bme/blackwhite.

The findings from the two media research projects undertaken last year
are being incorporated into a comprehensive review of mental health
and the media (see Media section above).

++ Employment ++
Over 40,000 copies of the Shift Line Manager's Resource have been
distributed to employers across England, focussing on the public
sector. The resource is a practical guide to managing and supporting
people with mental health problems in the workplace. A new revised
edition is currently being drafted and will be ready for World Mental
Health Day. Shift is promoting the resources at a wide range of
national events. For free copies of the guidance, email
emplo...@nmhdu.org.uk or go to http://www.shift.org.uk/employers

An independent expert panel, The Shift Review Panel, was set up last
year to review guidance on mental health and employment to help
employers access the most appropriate resources for their
organisation. The panel, hosted by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental
Health, includes experts from academia, business and the public
sector. These 'quality checked' materials are now available via the
Shift website:

http://shift.org.uk/reviewpanel.

Three short films called 'Life in the Office' have been produced to
raise awareness of mental health problems at work to help reach out to
employers and staff who have not yet engaged with the issue. The
films, which can be viewed by employers and staff on the Internet, can
be used as part of training or promotional activity and are now being
disseminated with a package of awareness raising and educational
tools. The Life in the Office Film trailers are being shown at Shift
exhibition stands at numerous National Conferences in England. The
films and the training package are now available on the Shift website
at www.shift.org.uk. The films are also available on DVD which you can
also order for Free

To find out more about our employment work, visit:

http://www.shift.org.uk/work/employment

++ Football ++

Work is continuing to ensure football is used to improve the well-
being of people with mental health problems and breakdown
discrimination.
A 'Mental Health Advisory Group', set-up in partnership with Shift,
the Football Association (FA), Professional Footballers Association
(PFA), Premier League, Football Foundation, Sporting Chance (SC), Time
to Change, The League Managers Association and the Football League
Trust to support this work. We plan to hold a second national
conference and tournament event early next year before 31st March.
Shift have met with the PFA and SC and the League Football Education
(LFE) to consider producing a handbook for players about mental
health. A draft document will hopefully be prepared this autumn.

For more information about our work with football, including photos
and video, visit:http://shift.org.uk/madaboutfootball

Shift is also running a workshop and event around cricket and mental
health in partnership with 'Time to Change', the England and Wales
Cricket Board and Berkshire Healthcare this October. It is a 'pilot'
event and will hopefully lead to new projects in the area of mental
health and cricket in the future. To find out more about our sports
work, visit:http://www.shift.org.uk/work/sport

++ Shift on the Web ++

Shift's videocasts are a series of short videos that feature people
talking about their experience of stigma and discrimination.

Find out more here:http://shift.org.uk/aboutus/podcast

Visit Shift website here: http://www.shift.org.uk

Facebook members can follow our work here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shift/18052500287

See our bookmarks on Delicious here: http://delicious.com/shiftstigma

Follow our Twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/shiftstigma

Find out about the other social networks that we use:
http://shift.org.uk/getinvolved/files/socialnetworks.html

++ Get Involved ++
The Shift website lists a number of ways in which you can help us with
the work that we do.
To find out more, please visit:http://www.shift.org.uk/getinvolved