Change in mental health awareness will only come if the people make it happen, Alastair Campbell, the former chief strategist of British Prime Minister Tony Blair said this evening.
Mr Campbell, an ambassador for the UK Time to Change mental health campaign, was speaking during a talk titled 'Why the time to change attitudes towards mental health illness is now' organised by the Richmond Foundation, an NGO that offers support to people with mental health problems.
The talk was organised to launch a national mental health awareness campaign by the foundation.
“Changing attitudes is hard but it can be done... The change will only come if we make the change happen and the politicians will only respond to the change.... It's about changing the way people think... and government starts investing in mental health."
Mr Campbell spoke about the "bad breakdown" he experienced in the mid 80s when he was arrested for his own safety and drank too much. At the time he was a journalist and when, in 1994, Mr Blair asked him to work for him, his past became public interest.
He decided to talk about it and never regretted it as it helped other people - and himself.
"I was close to the abyss and I came out," he said.
Richmond Foundation chief executive Antoinette Shah said one in every four people experienced mental health problems.
Jonathan Shaw, member of foundation's board of trustees, spoke about safeguarding the mental health of children who often had little quality time as a result of result-driven educational systems and overly ambitious parents.
President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said that according to a recent study, carried out by the office of the Mental Health Commissioner, almost half of people found it difficult, or had no clue of how, to find information about mental health problems, such as depression and stress.
She recounted how, a year ago, she met a 15-year-old boy who told her he ended up in Mount Carmel's young people's unit and lied not to be given more drugs. He said he needed help and got it from school and from his friend. The friend told her: "All I do is monitor his Facebook account and, whenever I see that he is down, I suggest we go for a walk."
MEP Miriam Dalli, a Richmond Foundation ambassador, spoke about the damage brought about by stigmatisation and the use of negative labels.
Mental Health Commissioner John Cachia said the Mental Health Act was showing results as there was a shift towards community care. Over the past seven months there had been 184 applications for people to be admitted into care against their will. Four per cent were minors and 15 per cent were asylum seekers. Almost 75 per cent were either discharged or moved into voluntary care within 10 days.