It’s official: our next fundraising gig will be in aid of Rethink, who celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. They started out as the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, operating at a time when conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar (then know as manic depression), were barely spoken about. Anyone diagnosed with or caring for someone affected by these wide ranging and often debilitating conditions was almost utterly bereft of any support, let alone information. Thanks to the work of Rethink, and that of a few other pioneering charities including SANE (the beneficiaries of another of our ongoing campaigns), times have changed.

Speaking of pioneering efforts and times changing, the now aptly renamed Rethink Mental Health and Mind’s joint campaign to address stigma, Time To Change, has had a massive and wide-reaching impact on people’s perception and understanding of mental health issues. Their approach has been inclusive and broad, bringing the stigma commonly associated with tackling mental health to the very top of the agenda on TV, radio and also crucially through social media channels and onto the internet. Thanks to the web, people from all over the world are now able to access resources which continue to improve almost daily.

Please take a few minutes to watch this powerful and ground-breaking film produced for the Time To Change campaign. It’s not just relevant to young people and clearly it doesn’t just concern the British population:

Time to Change film link: The Stand Up Kid

As I write, the number of viewers is 53,410 – this video was published on the 12th September 2012, 17 days and less than 3 weeks ago.

There are lots of interesting comments and currrently 504 likes and 21 dislikes – the latter making you wonder who and why they felt the need to disapprove. Therein perhaps lies part of the story about stigma. Anyone touched by mental health issues, whether personally or professionally, knows that stigma remains one of the biggest issues. This is no time for complacency. Whilst the dialogue is more open nowadays, we still need to keep talking. The Time To Change film highlights how difficult talking can be and how crucial it is, from both sides of the fence. The more we can communicate this to others the better. Please share this film and please keep talking.

Find out more about Rethink via our Charities page where you can also donate direct to any of the organisations that we highlight.

To find out more about our forthcoming music benefit for Rethink, please check back soon, join our mailing list thefinelineproject (at) gmail (dot) com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.