Flora Tanti, mental health nursing student & service user, addressing participants
sitting l to r: new graduate psychiatric nurse, Christy Compton, Commissioner for Mental Health Dr Cachia, Dr Scerri, Dean Prof. Xuereb, Pro-Rector Prof. Baldacchino
Mental Health problems and mental illness may occur at any age and affect anyone irrespective of gender, race, colour and social status.
In the 21st century, the era of knowledge societies, new discoveries and social media, the reality of mental health issues is still very misunderstood and often surrounded by great stigma. Whilst emotions colour our lives, the strong lived emotions in various mental health conditions go beyond the ‘feeling good’ or ‘feeling bad’ effect but tend to last longer and have the potential of disrupting one’s life and that of those around him. Like other health challenges, mental health problems are diverse in nature and their manifestation is unique to each sufferer, depending on type, treatment, personality, support etc. Whilst information usually stops at giving a negative picture, it is heartening to know that a wide range of treatments exist that address the symptoms of mental illness, thus empowering the sufferer to attain a better quality of life despite the problems faced. Understanding and empathising with the person's experience and recovery journey is an invaluable determinant of the outcome of care and the resilience to face challenges.
‘Although awareness around mental health issues has improved over the last decade, the stigma and discrimination that people with mental health problems and their families face, remain unacceptably high. This is mainly due to social perceptions of mental health problems which are dominated by negative stereotypes. Misconceptions about people with mental health problems continue to prevail not only in the media but also within professional and educational settings as well as in the health sector mainly due to lack of knowledge and awareness’. (ref. Mental Health Europe)
Unfortunately lack of knowledge often leads to speculation and false beliefs which tend to fuel stigma. To counteract this, the Office of the Commissioner for Mental Health and the University of Malta’s Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, , are launching a campaign to increase awareness and better inform the public, thereby counteracting the stigma related to mental health.
The concept of this campaign originated from a Faculty of Health Sciences student-based project as part fulfilment of the Bachelor’s Degree in Mental Health Nursing, during which students designed a set of posters to enhance awareness about mental health.
The launch of the #STOPSTIGMA campaign will present a selection of these posters. Additional information on misconceptions about mental health which foster stigma will be addressed with the presentation of an information leaflet in Maltese ‘10 Ideat żbaljati dwar is-saħħa mentali li int tista’ tgħinna nwarrbu!’. This was adapted in from material produced for the international mental health campaign "Each Of Us" initiated by Mental Health Europe.
Subsequently, a number of Maltese personalities will be invited to join this campaign and act as 'Ambassadors' to promote mental health and wellbeing with public appearances and speeches.
At the same time local companies and other entities will be invited to act as strategic partner in promoting the aims of the campaign: amongst their employees/clients/residents/service users and via their communication channels and social media; by encouraging the development of a ‘mental health policy’ at their work-place; by coming up with innovative and creative ways of how to promote the campaign and/or the mental wellbeing of their staff and society at large.
When publicly endorsing and promoting #STOPSTIGMA, collaborating entities and individuals shall be awarded certificates of participation during a public event towards the end of 2018.