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The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival - promoting social change through the arts
- Authors:
- CLARKE Pamela, KNIFTON Lee
- Journal article citation:
- A Life in the Day, 13(3), August 2009, pp.10-13.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Now in its third year, The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival is fast becoming a significant cultural annual event, which aims to achieve social change through the arts. Through innovative programming of arts events, the Festival explores the relationship between mental health and creativity, celebrates the artistic achievements of people with experience of mental health issues, and promotes positive mental health and well-being. It aims to promote the rights and recovery of people who experience mental ill health, while exploring mental health and inequalities that affect us all. The multi-arts Festival focuses on audiences' existing interests in film, theatre, comedy, music, literature and visual arts to tackle stigma and engage people.
Workplace interventions can reduce stigma
- Authors:
- KNIFTON Lee, WALKER Alice, QUINN Neil
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Public Mental Health, 7(4), December 2009, pp.40-50.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Stigma and discrimination towards people with mental health problems is a global issue, imposing a considerable public health burden in terms of social isolation, limited life chances, delayed help-seeking behaviour and stress. While numerous initiatives have been undertaken to address these issues, an evidence base for what works is still emerging. This paper explores the impact of 15 population-level awareness workshops delivered over a five-month period to 137 participants. These were employees drawn from workplaces identified as being important in the day-to-day lives of people with mental health problems. Evaluation approaches maximised specificity, sensitivity and anonymity and they assessed participant knowledge, attitude and behaviour. The workshops significantly improved participant knowledge. Attitude change was more complex with an overall significant improvement in attitudes, particularly in relation to unpredictability and recovery, but not dangerousness, which had more positive baseline attitudes. Social distance, a proxy for behavioural intent, had significant improvements in relation to ‘moderate’ social contact only. Qualitative feedback indicated that complex, unanticipated and positive messages had been absorbed by participants and influenced beliefs and behavioural intent. Service user narratives focusing on recovery were identified as the most valuable component of the intervention.