Will the Minister confirm how Welsh Government support for Time to Change Wales has changed over time since it was established in 2012?
Improving the mental health of the people of Wales is a priority for the Welsh Government and one of the key themes included in ‘Together for Health’, a five year vision for the NHS in Wales. Tackling the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness are key to this. That is why we have supported the Time to Change Wales (TTCW) programme with the Big Lottery fund and Comic Relief since 2012 and have continued to support and work with TTCW, through Phase 2 of the programme along with Comic Relief.
We also support the TTCW campaign by embedding the key messages throughout our programmes, for example tackling stigma is a core element of our Healthy Working Wales Programme, which engages with a wide range of organisations across Wales.
Learning from experiences of young people with mental health problems is one of the most effective ways to change the negative behaviour and attitudes of others. TTCW’s Young Person’s Programme funded by the Big Lottery is a 3 year focused anti-stigma and discrimination programme led by, and for, young people, building on the Time To Change Wales work with adults. Over the course of the project, 50 Young Champions are expected to directly engage with at least 5,000 young people. This involves working in partnership with nine schools clustered in three areas across Wales embedding a whole school approach to mental health awareness, anti-stigma messaging and activity. It is hoped that by the end of the project over 20,000 young people will have engaged with the associated social marketing campaign.
Regular monitoring is a core element of the programme and is embedded in the partnership agreement. Phase 1 of the programme (2012-2014) has been evaluated to seek evidence on attitudes and behaviours of the general public, and target audiences and campaign participants including TTCW champions. The public attitude survey has been repeated for Phase 2 of the programme, with the final report expected in Summer 2017.
In terms of young people, data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study suggest that the proportions reporting high life satisfaction have remained stable over time[1]. Similarly, adult data from the Welsh Health Survey show that mental (and physical) wellbeing scores have remained similar since 2003/04, although there has been a slight decline in mental wellbeing scores[2].
Moving forward, in February 2017, we will be supporting three mental health charities, Mind, Cymru, Gofal and Hafal with a State of Stigma event. The event will bring together key organisations and professionals to consider the work undertaken in Wales by TTCW along with wider work across the UK. The event will provide an invaluable opportunity to help inform our thinking and assist in the development of future work and priorities.
[1] http://gov.wales/docs/caecd/research/2015/151022-health-behaviour-school-children-2013-14-key-findings-en.pdf
[2] http://gov.wales/docs/statistics/2016/160622-welsh-health-survey-2015-health-status-illnesses-other-conditions-en.pdf