We were retained by Shine (Schizophrenia Ireland) to create and execute a public relations campaign to raise public and political awareness of mental health service development issues, and to galvanise support for the government’s mental health strategy, A Vision for Change.

Solution

This campaign was executed primarily through the national print and broadcast media.

• Our first press release was aimed at building public support for ring-fencing the money raised from the sale of old Victorian psychiatric hospitals, for new community mental health facilities.

• Our second press release was the first attack by any mental health organisation on the idea of putting the Central Mental Hospital beside a new prison at Thornton Hall in north Dublin, because it would stigmatise people with mental illness and defeat the vision of ‘A Vision for Change’. Former President Mary Robinson also spoke out and said this was wrong.

• We ghost wrote and placed feature articles in the Irish Medical Times, which is widely read by health policy makers and health service managers. Each of the features focused on specific new community mental health facilities recommended in ‘A Vision for Change’.

• To enable the client to capitalise on our media skills training programme, we arranged extended interviews on two of RTE’s most listened-to radio shows, Morning Ireland and The Tubridy Show. We also arranged a television interview on The Afternoon Show on RTE1.

• We produced a special interactive CD for the General Election. This mapped existing mental health facilities constituency-by-constituency, and highlighted the new mental health facilities actioned for development in ‘A Vision for Change.’ This CD provided the information backbone of an online campaigning website developed later by the Irish Mental Health Coalition.

Outcome

Shine (Schizophrenia Ireland) has enhanced its profile as a leading advocate of change in mental health service provision and in the promotion of more positive societal attitudes to mental illness.

Post-Script

The Minister of State for Mental Health Services, John Moloney TD, announced on 1 July 2009 that the proposal to relocate the Central Mental Hospital adjacent to a new prison had been abandoned by the Government. We are proud to have been the public relations agency that started the public and political pressure to have that policy jettisoned for a more humane approach.