A campaign to challenge stigma against mental health has celebrated its second anniversary with an international day of communication, with the main event in Norwich.
Katie Mottram, whose work has been published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, is the founder of #EmergingProud, a campaign to 're-think madness as a possible catalyst for positive transformation.'
The former mental health services worker founded Emerging Proud following her own break-down and recovery, and now wants to promote the fact that a mental break-down can lead to personal transformation that might improve a person's life.
The Norwich event for the second International Emerging Proud Day on May 12 was held at the Kinda Kafe on Castle Meadow, and used the SoMe model, invented by social cohesion innovators The Outsiders to encourage conversation between members of the public and volunteers.
Volunteers, who all have experiences with mental crisis, created profiles which were pinned to the wall. Members of the public were able to choose a volunteer from the wall, have a conversation with them, and then write their responses on a message board on the wall.
The Outsiders co-director Oz Osborne, 46, said this is to utilise the positive aspects of social media and combine them with face-to-face contact, which is beneficial to increasing understanding between different groups of people.
Ms Mottram, from Norwich said her own break-down in 2010 was related to the lack of communication around her mother's multiple suicide attempts whilst was growing up.
The 42-year-old said because she had worked in the mental health system she knew what sort of treatments were available and decided to research the ways the other cultures dealt with the issue.
She said: 'That break-down and research was the beginning of my break-through and I now see it as a blessing. It broke me down to who I really am.'
Ms Mottram is now attempting to merge the 'spiritual' side of mental health into mainstream treatment.
For more information visit https://emergingproud.com or contact Katie Mottram via mendthegap@hotmail.com
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