​Help us to Stamp out Stigma!

On 1 April 2010, North West Boroughs Healthcare (then known as 5 Boroughs Partnership) launched a campaign to challenge perceptions of mental health problems and learning disabilities. Our aim was to educate people and reduce the stigma around mental health, to help improve experiences for our service users and carers.

In our first year, we set ourselves a clear objective – to collect 100,000 pledges from members of the public promising not to use words that are hurtful or offensive to people with mental illness or learning disabilities, like ‘crazy’, ‘psycho’ and ‘nutter’.

In April 2011, one year after launching our campaign, we smashed our target by collecting over 106,000 pledges from members the public.

But our campaign doesn’t stop there...

As an organisation, we are committed to challenging mental health stigma locally, in the areas where our service users live – Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, Warrington, Wigan and across Greater Manchester. 

Seven years on, we are now focusing on sharing real-life stories from our service users and members who have first-hand experience of mental health stigma, and will be myth-busting some of the common misconceptions around different mental health conditions under monthly themes. 

Our work with local schools

We are also working proactively with local secondary schools to provide resources and build links so we can support them to reduce mental health stigma and send a clear message to their pupils and wider school communities - there is no place for stigma and discrimination in our modern, inclusive society. Visit our schools area to find out more.

Get in touch

If you'd like to share your own experiences of mental health problems and stigma with us, or if you have any questions or suggestions about the campaign, we'd love to hear from you. You can get in touch with us by email at communications@nwbh.nhs.uk 

You can also follow us on social media to stay up to date with our latest campaign activity:

Twitter: @istampoutstigma

Facebook: www.facebook.com/istampoutstigma