News

New ‘Mentality’ for health promotion

A new mental health charity said to be the first national organisation devoted to mental health promotion is to be launched on April 3, healthmatters can reveal.

The organisation, named ‘Mentality’, has been established by former members of the Health Education Authority’s mental health programme who decided to leave en mass to launch the new initiative. It will be affilliated to the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, and based at the centre’s London Bridge headquarters.

‘We had an excellent record at the HEA, where we have been running the World Mental Health Day campaign for five years, but this is an opportunity to give mental health a much higher priority,’ said Mentality director Dr Lynne Friedli.

Affilliation with the Sainsbury Centre offered ‘an ideal relationship’, she said. The new charity would offer an unrivalled experience in campaigning and mental health promotion at a national level, and in return would benefit from the centre’s extensive research base.

Mentality aims to work at both a national and local level, and with a special focus on delivering Standard One of the national service framework for mental health.

‘We will run health promotion campaigns, offer advice and guidance on all aspects of mental health and redress the balance between mental and physical health,’ she said. ‘We aim to gain a much greater recognition of the social and economic benefits of investing in mental health promotion across all sectors.’

Contact Mentality on: 0171 413 1991.