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About Testimony - Inside Stories of Mental Health Care
All too often people with experience of mental distress are misunderstood, labelled and denied the opportunities that others take for granted. At Mental Health Media (www.mhmedia.com) we know that the most powerful way to challenge this prejudice is to help them get across the real story about mental health, change media representations, and lead the fight against discrimination. We’re developing and delivering a range of projects which aim to educate and give people the tools and skills to take action. And we work with journalists and broadcasters to inform their coverage of mental health issues. We also run the annual Mental Health Media Awards (http://www.mhmawards.org/) which recognise and celebrate television and radio programmes about mental health which have the power to change minds and lives.
Mental Health Media's Anti-discrimination toolkit project. We have received further funding to continue this ground-breaking project which assists and inspires people involved in local anti-discrimination action and campaigns.
The OPEN UP Anti-discrimination toolkit brings together the best in rights and anti-discrimination work, learning from a range of movements about how best change attitudes. The London-based Toolkit team plus the five regional co-ordinators who have worked closely with local groups across England and Wales will be joined by an extended team. A versatile package of multimedia products is now available - click here to find out more. For more information about the project please see the website at www.openuptoolkit.net, launched in January 2004, where you can upload details of your group, get involved with the discussion forums and find out how to go about doing effective anti-discrimination work.
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Testimony consists of two phases. The project began in 1999 in collaboration with the British Library, as a response to the changing face of the British mental health care system. In its first phase, the project created an audio-visual record of life within institutions based on the old Victorian model. As former methods of treatment died away, the life-stories of those who had experienced them could be preserved and recognised as a valid part of the UK’s shared history. Specially trained interviewers went to film over 50 people from a range of backgrounds to give them a chance to speak from their own perspectives. This footage is now stored in the Life Story Collection in the British Library Archives.
In its current phase, Testimony aims to draw on this resource to widen awareness of the issues tackled in the interviews. We commissioned five films about mental health care past and present which approach the subject from very different standpoints. These will form part of an exhibition and event series due to take place throughout the rest of 2007. Its intention is to draw attention to the experiences of Service Users in the last century, showing how such experiences are still relevant today.
The Testimony website plays an important role in the latest stage of the project. You can use it to find out more about the history of the asylum and its significance for the current mental health care system, and learn about the development of the service user movement. There is also a community section where you can share opinions about mental health related issues. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of this site however, is that it gives full access to the transcripts of the original Testimony interviews, which up until now were only available via the British Library Archive. In our archive section, you can perform a search for around 150 different keywords, and from there go directly to the relevant transcript material.
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