Leading mental health charities Rethink and Mind have joined forces with the Institute of Psychiatry and Mental Health Media to form a new coalition, Moving People, to devise an anti-stigma marketing campaign aimed at challenging public attitudes towards mental health in England.

The coalition has been formed in response to a Department of Health survey that shows that mental health stigma is still rife, with one in eight people reporting that they would not want to live next door to someone who has been mentally ill and one third of people thinking that people with mental health problems should not have the same rights to a job as everyone else.

Research for Moving People carried out by Rethink has found that nearly nine out of 10 people with mental health problems have been affected by stigma and discrimination, with two thirds saying they have stopped doing things because of the stigma they face. The anti-stigma marketing campaign will be launched in January 2009.

movingpeople.org.uk