Norwich Mind The Bigger Picture celebrated World Mental Health Day at the Magdalen Street Celebration. The theme for World Mental Health Day this year is dignity: what can be done to ensure that people with Mental Health problems can live with dignity? Please see end of blog article to read about WMHD and the World Federation for Mental Health.
Norwich Mind The Bigger Picture at the Magdalen Street Festival Anglia Square
Patience at the Magdalen Street Festival – beautiful hand crafted jewellery
The Magdalen Street Celebration is a great community-led, lively street fair which celebrates the creativity and diversity in Norwich through art, music, dance, local performers and food.
Magdalen Street Festival Anglia Square
Helen Simpson – one of the Magdalen Street Festival organisers
Magdalen Street Festival 2015 Poster
Text by Paola Colombo Bigger Picture Manager
‘As Bigger Picture volunteers we know that stigmatising and discriminatory treatment can be particularly distressing when a person is experiencing a health crisis. We all have mental health, and by failing to treat people with mental health problems with dignity we make it more difficult to ensure that we all are more proactive towards safeguarding our wellbeing and seeking help when we need to. This leads in turn to self-stigma, low confidence, low self-esteem, withdrawal and social isolation.’ We believe that effectively supporting people experiencing mental health problems is on target to become one of the greatest public health challenges of our time.’
Paola Colombo (left) – Bigger Picture Manager with Anastacia (right) BP Assistant
We had a fantastic day at the Magdalen Street Festival for World Mental Health Day #WMHD15. Norwich Mind The Bigger Picture had 50 conversations with people about mental health. Huge thanks to everyone who stopped to talk with us.
Volunteer Ricky
Our information stand had a range of leaflets to inform people about the many different services Norwich Mind provides.
We had a creative scratch art activity for children and adults which encouraged people to talk to us about mental health stigma.
Volunteer James created this fab sign for our scratch art activity
Scratch art has proved very popular at events and is really easy to do. It is a great conversation starter and people really enjoy getting creative and being able to take their artwork home with them.
Below is a slide show of some of the creative scratch art produced at the Magdalen Street Festival. Thanks you to everyone who participated in our activity and talked to us.
We also asked people to sign Time to Change pledges about what they would do to end mental health stigma and discrimination. Huge thanks to everyone who created a pledge.
Time to Change is England’s biggest campaign to end mental health stigma and discrimination. It is funded by the National Lottery, Department of Health and Comic Relief. 
Their latest campaign is focusing on the #SmallThings which people can do to help someone and how it can make a big difference in their lives. Please see the Time to Change website for further details.
Huge thanks to everyone who talked to us and joined in our Scratch Art activity and to the organisers of the event. Slide show below with lots of pictures from the event.
Text taken from World Federation for Mental Health website
‘World Mental Health Day #WMHD2015 was observed for the first time on 10 October 1992 and continues to be the official day of commemoration every year. It was started as an annual activity of the World Federation for Mental Health by the then Deputy Secretary General Richard Hunter and it has become the largest and most widely promoted education and advocacy program of the WFMH.’
Helen Simpson one of the organisers at the Magdalen Street Festival 2015
‘…WFMH is an international membership organization founded in 1948 to advance, among all people’s and nations, the prevention of mental and emotional disorders, the proper treatment and care of those with such disorders, and the promotion of mental health. The Federation, through its members and contacts in more than 100 countries on six continents, has responded to international mental health crises through its role as the only worldwide grassroots advocacy and public education organization in the mental health field. Its organizational and individual membership includes mental health workers of all disciplines, consumers of mental health services, family members, and concerned citizens. The organization’s broad and diverse membership makes possible collaboration among governments and non-governmental organizations to advance the cause of mental health services, research, and policy advocacy worldwide.’ Text from WFMH website.
‘This year the World Federation for Mental Health has chosen “Dignity in Mental Health” as the theme for World Mental Health Day on 10 October. “Dignity” is a word that has a number of meanings, none of them precise—but we all recognize dignity when we see it, and more importantly, we recognize the lack of it when it’s absent.
If you are interested in finding out more about Norwich Mind The Bigger Picture project please contact paolacolombo@norwichmind.org.uk
Blog compiled by Anastacia Tohill – Bigger Picture Assistant – Design and Social Media
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