Call for mental health element to campaign

Making the case for the inclusion of mental health information in the next Government campaign are Eileen OBrien, Carrickfergus Womens Forum; Wendy Fisher, Carrickfergus Womens Forum; Clare Watson, Participation and the Practices of Rights organisation and Ruby Durrant, Carrickfergus Womens Forum. INCT 40-710-CON

The Mental Health Rights Campaign (MHRC) group, local patients, organisations and MLAs have joined forces to issue the appeal in advance of the ‘Choose Well’ public health information initiative which is due out later this year.

MHRC, which includes people affected by mental health issues, carers and families bereaved by suicide, presented new Health Minister Jim Wells with almost 1000 pledges of support.

The group has secured a meeting with the Health and Social Care Board, which is responsible for the ‘Choose Well’ campaign and is calling on the minister to ensure that the HSCB takes no decisions to finalise the campaign without first including information about where those in mental health distress should go for help and also involving those with experience of mental health problems themselves.

The last ‘Choose Well’ campaign ran between Autumn 2013 and March 2014 at a cost of £167,000, according to the campaign.

Eileen O’Brien, Carrickfergus Women’s Forum, said: “The campaign is called ‘Choose Well’ – but there’s no choice for mental health. There is no information for a person in mental health crisis or their family on where to get help.

“Mental health issues can affect people of any age and one in four people in Northern Ireland experience mental health problems at some stage in their lives. It is so important that people in mental health crisis can access the information they need on how to get help, at the right time.

“We want to make sure that information on mental health is included in the Choose Well campaign, and that the people in charge listen to people like us, who know from experience what that information needs to include.”

The Choose Well campaign was originally developed in England and Wales and rolled out in Northern Ireland last year, partly as a response to a rise in waiting times at A&Es.

The move to replicate the campaign without making the necessary readjustments to reflect the higher than average rates of suicide here has been questioned by campaigners.

Last year 303 deaths by suicide were recorded in Northern Ireland.