1. What is Time to Change Wales?
Time to Change Wales is the first national campaign to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems in Wales.
2. Where are you based?
We have staff and Champions based all around Wales and a central team in Cardiff.
3. How can I contact you?
Please see the contact us page on this website
4. Who are the organisations delivering the campaign and how is it funded?
Time to Change Wales is delivered by a partnership of two leading Welsh mental health charities, Mind Cymru and Hafal. It is funded by the Big Lottery, Comic Relief and the Welsh Government. Find out more
5. How is this funding spent?
Time to Change Wales’ funding is split roughly equally between three main work strands and a small central team. These work strands are: training, social leadership (overseeing our champions and community projects) and social marketing.
6. How do I volunteer for the campaign or submit a blog?
All our volunteers and bloggers are Time to Change Wales Champions. You can find out about becoming a Champion here – sign up and we’ll get back to you with details of how to get involved with the campaign.
7. Why do we use the language we do to talk about mental health?
Finding the ‘right’ language to describe people’s experiences of mental health problems will always be difficult. There is no one term or set of terms that everyone will agree on. We try to use words that the public – whose attitudes and behaviour we seek to change - are most likely to understand. The terms “mental health problem” and “mental illness”, as well as specific diagnostic names (for example depression, bipolar disorder, etc) are widely used and understood by people outside of ‘the mental health world’, which is why we use them.
We respect that some people reject any form of label, and some don’t see their experiences as an illness or a problem at all. We also respect that some people find their experience best understood in terms of illness, and find medical diagnoses a useful way of talking about, and getting support for what they are going through. Within Time to Change Wales, and the organisations delivering the campaign (Mind Cymru and Hafal), there are many people with lived experience who have diverse points of view.
We don’t see our role as being to decide which of these points of view is ‘right’, or to tell anyone what language they should use to talk about their own experiences. Bloggers and other Time to Change Wales Champions posting on this site choose the language they feel is appropriate to them. What we are here to do is to improve the attitudes and behaviour of the general public towards those of us affected by any mental health problem. We can only achieve this by using the language they understand.
8. Are TTCW Champions paid for their work?
No. Time to Change Wales Champions support the campaign on a purely voluntary basis. Champions are reimbursed for any travel or expenses incurred in relation to their Time to Change Wales activity.
Blog and social media comments policy
Talking publically about mental health can be very difficult. We want to break down this stigma by getting people talking about mental health in all walks of life.
That's why personal stories are at the heart of our campaign. The bravery of individuals willing to speak out on our website, in the media or on social media about their own experiences is a powerful and inspiring way to break down stigma and encourage other people to come forward and share their stories.
Why do you moderate comments?
Comments, debate and different perspectives are welcome and encouraged. We want people to feel they can discuss personal experiences in a safe, respectful environment.
In order to ensure that people feel able to enter discussions online though we do moderate comments on our blog posts and our social media channels such as Facebook.
Our commenting rules
All comments should be considerate and respectful and we may remove comments (or, in the case of our blogs, not publish comments) that:
- are offensive, threatening, vindictive, abusive or make personal attacks of any kind
- are unlawful e.g. content posted in breach of copyright
- are overly repetitive or irrelevant to the main thread of the conversation
- are triggering or explicit with regard to suicide or self-harm
- advertise commercial products or services
- talk about ongoing legal cases with employers
- promote specific treatment types or therapies
- contain an email address or any other sort of contact details. Remember that social media is open to all and that you should be careful who you give your details to. In the case of blog comments, if you would like to get in contact with someone, please go through the Time to Change Wales Contact Us page
- in the case of blog comments, approach people for media work, school projects or research. If you would like to contact a blogger, about something, please go through the Time to Change Wales Contact Us page
If somebody comments on a blog in an offensive, threatening, vindictive or abusive way, Time to Change Wales will block that person from their social media pages.
Do you contact people to let them know their comment has been removed?
Sometimes we will contact individuals privately if it is likely to be unclear why we have removed a comment.
What if somebody is commenting when they are unwell?
It can be difficult for us to know how someone is feeling when they write a comment. So we will apply the exact same principles to moderating all comments. This is to protect the individual as well as the community.
However, if someone is clearly in distress or crisis we will contact them to let them know contact details for appropriate support services.