Awareness of mental health has been increased thanks to a campaign by Time to Change.  A series of events called ‘Time to Talk’ were held to help those affected by mental health problems allowing them to share their experiences and thoughts.

A social media campaign supported the day, with the hashtag #timetotalk trending all day on Twitter, whilst newspapers and celebrities also tweeted their support.

‘Time to talk’ is led by ‘Time to Change’, an anti-stigma campaign, run by the leading mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, after being set up in 2007. Over 68,000 conversations were logged on the ‘time to change’ website, as many shared their feelings and experiences.

Mind, one of the charities that has helped make these campaigns possible has over 140 shops within England, including one in Gloucester. There shop manager, John, was pleased with the achievements Mind were able to bring with events like ‘time to talk’.

“Of course we’re extremely proud; they’re are more and more people getting help”.

Despite the successful awareness and projects that have been set up, he continued to say that locally resources were stretched.

“It’s the supply and demand. We have just not got the funding to keep it up and try and help every single person”.

“We don’t have a mind centre in Gloucester, the nearest is in Bristol, and this is what we are finding very frustrating.”

Tom Clarke, a University of Gloucestershire student and presenter at BBC Radio Gloucestershire echoed the thoughts.

“I think the support systems are a lot better, whether they are of a satisfactory level is a different question.

Mr Clarke however was quick to praise the work of Time to Change stating that the benefits of were already showing.

“I think it shows the community who are not so supportive of mental health issues that there is now widened support for those people”.