See Me event called for an end to mental health discrimination
Hundreds of people took over a Glasgow park on Wednesday to demand an end to mental health discrimination.
Over 300 campaigners gathered outside the People’s Palace in Glasgow Green in an event organised by anti-stigma programme See Me and mental health activist and former social worker Chris McCullough Young.
In a visible show of force they each walked a mile around the park while conversing about different mental health problems they have either experienced or about their experience of helping people with problems.
The Walk A Mile event is part of McCullough Young’s epic walk round the UK. In 2011 he set off from his home in Edinburgh hoping to end mental health stigma one conversation at a time just by speaking to people he meets about his Borderline Personality Disorder.
One of the best ways to change how people think and behave is to make mental health a topic in day to day conversation
With no money, only his mini trailer, affectionately named Hubert and his rucksack, known as Darth 2, he is relying entirely on the hospitality of the people he met along the way to help him on his journey.
So far he has walked around the edge of Scotland, through England and has made it to Wales
“The idea of Walk a Mile is to get people who don’t normally talk to each other, who stigmatise against each other, and that goes both ways from professionals towards people with mental health problems and the other way around, to share a mile in each other’s shoes,” he said.
“My parents used to live in the Gorbals so it’s great to have this event so close to my family’s old home.
“Glasgow is a city that seems to think it is a village where folk are so keen to talk and share a story, and you can see that with how many people have come together here to challenge stigma.
“A motivator to start the walk was to show people this is what mental ill health looks like, it’s not what you see in the newspapers, it’s not what you see on the TV, very often it is just a person getting on with their life.”
The event brought together groups who normally meet at times of stress and crisis, such as health care staff and those who have experience of mental health problems.
There has been a significant rise in the number of people seeking treatment for mental health conditions, they currently account for a third of all GP appointments in Scotland.
Eleanor Ogilvie, See Me community manager, added: “On his walk around the UK, and in leading the Walk a Mile events, Chris has inspired thousands of people.
“Stigma and discrimination ruins lives. One of the best ways to change how people think and behave is to make mental health a topic in day to day conversation, rather than a taboo subject people don’t want to talk about.
“Having hundreds of people coming together in Glasgow to have these positive conversations is a great demonstration of the change we want to see.”
