'Mental health demystified' project launches in York
Time to Change York wants us to help end stigmas around mental health and wellbeing.
Mental health campaigners in York have launched a new campaign - urging us to send in any questions we may have about the topic.
'Mental health demystified' is a project from Time to Change York/York CVS, and is seeking to end stigmas around mental wellbeing.
Emma Williams is the Project Coordinator at Time to Change York: "We're people with lived experiences of mental illness ourselves, and we share our experiences to help bust some of those myths and stigmas - and to end mental health discrimination in York.
"We want people to email us with any questions they've got about mental illness and we'll do our best to help.
"We've all got a variety of experiences, so we'll do our best to help. Some people might want to know what it's like to hear voices; what it's like to go to your GP if you're concerned about mental health; what to do if you want to ring the crisis line and so on".
"Having that passing of information from someone with lived experience makes a much more significant impact on how someone reacts to that information - to us it's absolutely essential.
"We're very happy to respond to questions, but people do worry about asking questions; they worry about using the wrong language or offending. There are barriers on all sides, so we just really encourage anyone who is listening not to worry.
"We'll anonymise anyone who sends in questions and would never share their full details. The stigma is huge on all sides; some people rank conditions alongside each other, but we say 'come on, let's have that discussion and share'.
"We've done some work on social anxiety and the easing of lockdown restrictions, but in terms of relevance mental health is always relevant".
The email to get in contact and send questions is: timetochange@yorkcvs.org.uk