Who's your mental health champion?

NATIONAL charity Mind has announced its shortlist for the Champion Award 2010, writes Lyn Jenkins.

The award "celebrates the work of people who have made an outstanding contribution to increasing understanding of mental health and championing the rights of people with mental distress."

The shortlist includes:

• Dr Miriam Stoppard - nominated for her work with the Daily Mirror and the help she gives through her problem pages and columns

• Ruby Wax - nominated for Ruby's Room, part of the BBC's Headroom project  and her comedy tour which focused on her own experiences of mental distress

• Mark Brown - nominated for developing and managing the excellent One in Four magazine

• Rachel Perkins - a psychologist and director of South West London and St George's Mental Health Trust, nominated for championing better employment support for those with mental distress

• Bill Oddie - nominated for championing the therapeutic effects of outdoor space and speaking out about his own experience

• Marion Janner- nominated for using her own experience to help others through the development of the Star Wards programme

• Mark Harper MP - nominated for his campaign to remove section 141 of the Mental Health Act so that people who have been detained are not prevented from holding roles in Parliament 

In the spirit of celebration we asked our facebook friends and others who they would like to be recognised as a mental health champion, here's the names they put forward.

• Peter Campell, nominated for services too varied and numerous to mention: Mind's Diamond Champion
• Peter Beresford,  Professor and Mental Health Service User for his achievements, dedication and openess
• Stephen Fry, for being open and proud (most of the time) to be himself and let others learn from that
• Alistair Campbell
, for his strategic advice on tackling mental health discrimination and his openess about his own experiences
• Judith Haire, because she's great and her book is too
• Dawn Willis, because no-one's quite sure where she gets the time or energy to keep us all up to date on the latest mental health news via Twitter and other social networks with all the other work she does too 
• And, all those people who do something - large or small, quietly or loudly, in public or anonymously - that contribute towards making the lives of everyone who have been affected by mental distress better

We thank you all.

Visit Mind's website to vote on their award shortlist.

And why not mention someone else whose efforts you would like to celebrate?

Let us know in the comments or why not just take some time to tell them?

 

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Comments

[Anonymous]

I think it's interesting that Mind have developed this initiative and that it's important that they have - but how come it's the same old people (or is that not fair?) who seem to be featured. I've also seen it reported that alongside speaking up or wanting to end stigma about mental health issues, more needs to be done to improve services - for that reason I'd say that the former Labour party activist and would-be MP Zoe Smith should be recognised for talking about this, albeit on a small scale through her blog and in a BBC interview so far. That said, I think it's an excellent scheme and I hope the resulting media coverage -- whoever wins, can help spread a message that mental health is an important thing to "champion" in the first place.

[Whenmedicine via twitter]

My #mentalhealth champ=my bro Awed by his courage & persistence. Admire his fearlessness in going public http://bit.ly/1uIfmY

[Lyn]

Thanks Anonymous, I think you're right...I suppose it does seem like it's always the same people. The MIND list does strike me a being, perhaps, a little London-centric too. That might be unfair though as they do give out a lot of awards and I haven't analysed them to check how many of the recipients are based in or around London.

Through this post we (Breaking the Silence) hope to be able to give people the opportunity to celebrate their own champions and raise awareness of other people doing good work out there :)

p.s. Check out the film link from When Medicine - it's fantastic!