Now it's no secret Ralph's always up for a laugh and that he has a soft spot for raising mental health awareness after the Ralph's Life CD, so it's no surprise that when he heard there was a project in St Helens using comedy to help end mental health discrimination he quickly checked it out.
The Stand Up To Stigma project in St Helens is funded by Time To Change and they have established a Comedy Course in conjunction with The Comedy Trust alongside a number of events in the offing that are aimed at ending mental health discrimination through public interaction and the medium of laughter. This will culminate in an evening of stand-up comedy in St Helens at a venue and time that will be announced soon.
What's the connection between Ralph and mental health? Well Ralph's a dog and depression is sometimes called Black Dog and there's a big black dog in a very funny video by Time To Change called Wolfpack. That and the Ralph's Life CD to raise funds and awareness for Rethink Mental Illness of course!
Time to Change is England’s mental health anti-stigma programme run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness and funded by The Department of Health, Comic Relief and Big Lottery Fund. The programme is distributing grants to local community-led projects as part of its drive to improve public attitudes and behavior in relation to mental health.
Stand Up To Stigma, which is led by people with mental health problems, will use the grant to establish meaningful and open conversations with others in the local area. The aim is to bring people who don’t have mental health problems into social contact with those who do. Evidence suggests that this kind of contact is one of the most effective ways of breaking down stigma and discrimination.
The project will run a series of short stand up comedy courses that use a variety of creative techniques to help develop the skills and confidence of people living with mental health problems. Each course will culminate in four comedy events taking place in local libraries across St Helens, where course participants will engage audience members through their stand up routines and one to one conversations which will enable them to talk about their mental health issues. The Stand Up To Stigma project will be delivered in partnership with Addaction, St Helens Mind and St Helens Council
Picture courtesy of Andy Hollingworth
Stand Up To Stigma comedy events are the finale to the six week comedy course involving people with lived experience of mental health issues. The events will showcase the routines written and performed by our budding comedians and will be compered by Liverpool stand-up, Sam Avery. There will also be a chance to chat to the participants about their own experiences after they have performed. So please do come along, have a laugh and help us ‘stand up to stigma’. Comedy events are free.
Date and time of event:
Thursday 3/7/14 - 1:00pmHaydock Library, Church Road, Haydock, St Helens WA11 0LY
