New Zealand's destigmatization campaign wins international award
Like Minds Like Mine, a high profile national New Zealand campaign aimed at changing public attitudes towards people who experience mental illness has won a prestigious advertising award.
The EFFIE, (effective advertising award) for a not for profit has been awarded for the first time in New Zealand, although award ceremonies have been held over three decades in 19 countries
The Like Minds Like Mine project has been running for three years and features well known New Zealanders talking about their experience of mental illness. Those featured include sports people, musicians, business people, and others with a high profile in the community.
The Ministry of Health funds the campaign and campaign manager Gerard Vaughan say research show the campaign is making a positive difference to the way people view mental illness.
Vaughan described recognition from the marketing arena as 'a pat on the back' from the marketing arena for everyone involved.
'The ads model what our research has shown,' Vaughan says, - that supportive friends and colleagues can make a big difference to the lives and recovery of people with experience of mental illness.'
Judges were impressed with the well planned and executed campaign, and the high level of public awareness of the advertisements. They acknowledged the difficulty of trying to change attitudes in a society where people with mental illness are often excluded from mainstream life.
He admits that there is still a long way to go to achieve the aim of the project that is to create a society that values and includes people with mental illness.
The campaign does not rely on high profile TV advertising alone. Twenty-six regionally contracted public health providers work at the grass roots level. People who experience mental illness are involved throughout the project, and at the local level many take part in Speakers Bureaus, where they are available to speak wherever they are invited to talk about their lives and experience with mental illness.
Some mental heath service users express unease about the campaign focus on high profile people, saying that 'ordinary' people with 'ordinary' lives may not gain the benefits of the campaign. This was certainly evident in a recent current affairs television documentary that focused on the negative stereotyped perception of both people with mental illness and the services they use. Fortunately the campaign is set to continue for some time yet as real change won't be achieved overnight.
The web site www.likeminds.govt.nz provides information about the project and resources relating to the campaign. Although much of the material on the site is aimed at the New Zealand population some sections, including project history, media center, links, project plan and contacts may be of interest to an international audience, particularly media people or those wishing to run a similar project.
Unfortunately regular campaign newsletters on the site are available in pdf format only. People with vision impairments must gain access through the Foundation of the Blind telephone News service that may discourage some.
International Guild growing steadily
The International Guild of Disabled Artists and Performers now has 123 members around the world. Web site visits are up to 1279.
IGODAP now has its own independent web site: http://www.igodap.org
Members can promote themselves and their work on the web site, including a picture, and include links to their own web sites member profiles can be found at http://www.igodap.org/promote.htm
The site suffers from not being updated very often, probably because the work is voluntary. I was disappointed with the low number of member profiles included, and one link did not work.
Despite those minor criticisms the site is easy to use, has a Bobby accessibility classification, and has a lot of potential for development.
It also has a good list of disability arts links in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, USA and the UK, even though one of the UK links crashed my browser. There is also a reminder that all sites may not be accessible. I always find this a bit ironic when we are talking about disability sites.
It would be good to see more of the talented disabled artists, writers and performers around the world using this site to promote themselves and their work.
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