STOP Stigma Aims and Objectives

STOP Stigma is about teaching ‘for’ as well as ‘about’ mental health”.

Context

Research shows that "Any approach (to addressing stigma) needs to address the key elements associated with stigma, namely prejudice, lack of knowledge and discrimination".[1] Similarly a combination of:

• education (i.e. increasing knowledge)
• ‘protest’, i.e. campaigning (educating others about stigma) and
• contact with someone with mental health problems[2]

creates the foundation for effective work.[3]

This has informed the content of STOP Stigma.

Aim

STOP Stigma aims to increase students’ awareness of stigma linked to mental health problems, the role of language in stigmatisation and to reduce stigma by increasing students’ knowledge and understanding of mental health problems.

Objectives

Students will:

• develop an understanding of stigma and the importance of language
• understand the impact of stigma on people with mental health problems and the people that care for them
• explore their own attitudes to mental health and mental illness
• dispel myths about mental health / illness
• learn more about specific mental health problems
• understand that changeable levels of mental wellbeing are a normal part of our life experience
• feel more confident to talk about mental health
• be more aware of who to talk to/where to go for help if they are concerned about themselves or someone they know.

Teachers and school staff will:

• feel more confident to deliver this work and to discuss mental health in the classroom
• understand the importance of a whole-school approach to the emotional health and wellbeing of pupils in school and as a context for this work
• know how to signpost young people to further help in school and beyond.

[1] Stigma: a review of the evidence, Young Minds, 2010

[2] There is an emerging evidence base of the effectiveness of involving someone with a mental health problem in education in the classroom (with caveats). We have chosen at this time not to go down this route for practical reasons, but hope that developments of the work may include this in the future. In the meantime we will address this in part through the use of case studies and video material involving people with mental health problems.

[3] Corrigan, P.W., Kerr, A. and Knudson, L. The stigma of mental illness: explanatory models and methods for change, Applied and Preventive Psychology, 11 pp179-190, 2005