Blurt Foundation: Stamping Out The Stigma, One Word At A Time

Yesterday’s mental health debate in the House of Commons, will surely go down in history with 4 MP’s speaking out about their personal experiences of mental illness. A topic we wrote about only a few weeks ago for Total Politics.

Both Andrea Leadsom and Sarah Wollaston spoke about their Post-Natal Depression, with Sarah speaking also about depression and anxiety. Charles Walker and Kevan Jones spoke out about their experiences of depression with Charles admitting that due to the illness he had been in ”some quite dark places.”

To hear those MP’s speak out in such an open way, with no fear of judgement and discrimination will pave the way for many others to do the same.

At Blurt HQ, we watched it with bated breath. Feelings of relief that mental health was finally being addressed in such a candid way, slight disappointment that more MP’s weren’t taking part and a renewed sense of expectation – it’s fantastic that the debate took place, that it was watched by so many (#mentalhealthdebate was trending on Twitter yesterday) and now it’s time for action.

Action speaks far louder than words. Let’s make it possible for those with mental illnesses to take part in jury service, let’s keep the momentum going in encouraging others to speak out about mental illness in the same way they would about physical illness and let’s work with employers to show that those with mental illnesses are more than employable.