January 25, 2012
Call out for media volunteers
for radio ad campaign
See Change, the national stigma reduction partnership works to change minds about mental health problems in Ireland. Our goal is to challenge negative attitudes by bringing home the message that mental health problems affect all of us and that mental health problems don’t have to prevent people from leading fulfilling lives – and that people with mental health problems can and do recover.
We’re looking for people with personal experience of a mental health problem to share their stories as part of a public information ad campaign for local radio.
We believe that the stories of people who have experienced mental health problems and the associated stigma have the power to change peoples’ attitudes towards mental health problems. Personal stories help people relate to those who are experiencing mental health problems, in a way that statistics cannot. If there is silence, then there is stigma and if there is stigma, than there is silence. We are hoping that this radio campaign will help to break that silence in a positive way. Hearing or reading the stories of real people affected by mental health problems can help to inform people and inspire them to reconsider their attitudes and prejudice.
Our radio campaign will target four key audiences, based on research carried out by See Change on where the potential and need for attitude change was greatest:
1. 18-24 year old males;
2. Farming/rural community;
3. People in the workplace;
4. 35-45 year olds with children.
Do you represent any of these key audiences?
Interested in sharing your story of personal experience of a mental health problem?
Are you willing to lend your voice to this ad campaign?
How will it work?
Each candidate will be sent a media volunteer application form to complete.
Participants may wish to participate without using their name – though your real voice will be used, you can use a different name if you wish.
Media training can be provided to participants. Our production team will work with each participant to set down what aspects of their story they are comfortable sharing.
Each participant will have a brief clip of their story recorded for a short radio ad.
If you are interested in finding out more, or would like to consider putting yourself forward, then please contact Sorcha from the See Change team on 01 8601620 / email slowry@seechange.ie
