Mind Waves

Mind Waves is a peer-led Scottish charity that shares positive stories about mental health and wellbeing.

With the Anti-Stigma Arts Fund funding, the charity’s Community Correspondents created three videos which powerfully describe the impact of mental health stigma, combined with the challenges of living with a severe and enduring mental health condition.

Mind Waves’ Rosie McIntosh said: “It was incredible seeing people come together to talk and even laugh about the challenges that we face day to day. We hope the animations reflect that – they’re hard hitting on a serious topic, but there’s still a real humanity and even humour in them.

“Art gives a space to talk about the issues in ways that aren’t just about medical definitions or policy interventions. When there’s room to be creative, you can really get to the heart of what’s important about a topic.

“People have told us that they had never thought about the issues that the animations tackled, that they genuinely thought differently after watching them. We also saw that there was a profound impact on the project participants' self-stigma, to see the hard work they do every day to manage their mental health being valued as an asset.”

The powerful short films are already being used in See Me’s work with community groups Scotland-wide.

The feedback from one of the participants in the project has been captured via a powerful audio evaluation which has been used in See Me training.

Mind Waves have also produced a presentation which makes use of the videos for groups to open up conversations around mental health stigma.

One of the films, ‘Then Stigma Comes Along’, has been embedded into See Me’s Community and Priority Groups training offer.

Watch the videos