Time to Connect Somerset is a campaign about challenging Stigma and discrimination around mental health. If this is something that interests you please read on and find out what we are doing to address unhelpful beliefs and attitudes, and how we are campaigning to make mental health a more acceptable subject to talk about, at work, at home and in your community.
Since 2007 , Mind in Somerset have been part of the Time to Change Hub (a partnership of local organisations and people who are committed to ending mental health stigma and discrimination) Although nationally that campaign has recently ended, we at Mind in Somerset are CARRYING ON! We are committing to continuing this work , although it may look different by next year, the ethos will still be very much the same.
All of the work at Time to Connect Somerset hub is driven by Time to Connect Champions. TTC Champions are a supportive network of people with lived experience of mental health issues, and who recognise that the negative stereotypes about our mental health can sometimes hold us back, preventing us from leading our best lives.
We are all committed to doing something about this! Below are some examples of some of the work that was done
To raise awareness, with the Time to Connect Champions Fund.
Our ambition is for Somerset to become a county where everyone feels safe speaking out about mental health issues and where people can secure the support they need when they need it. Becoming a Time to Connect hub will be instrumental in the work to bring our county together to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination
By working together as a county and using the expertise and support offered by the national Time to Connect campaign, we believe we can make great progress towards Somerset becoming a county free from stigma and discrimination around mental health.
Champions are invited to meet regularly online and exConnect ideas in a comfortable and non judgmental space.
All being well, we will soon be back out in the face to face world again, where we will be taking part in helpful conversations that challenge stigmatising beliefs, and normalise these kinds of conversations!
At the end of May, there will be a training session online , which will help us to prepare for this work , we will focus on ‘coming out of lockdown’, and how these conversations may look different now in 2021 .
Brooke recently joined time to Connect Somerset. She is a trained primary school teacher but have Connectd career path for now and loving it. This video explains a bit about her and why she joined time to Connect. If you would like to be involved at all please check out our socials on facebook (time to Connect Somerset), Twitter (@TTCSomerset) or Instagram (timetoConnect_somerset). I look forward to meeting you all.
Our Emotional support and mental health helpline is now available as a live webchat !
Available every day from 8-11pm.
