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Depression Alliance Campaigns and press releases
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Depression Alliance campaigns:
Raising Awareness of the Realities of Depression
Why we campaign
Depression is one of the most common conditions in the UK, affecting one in five people at some stage in their life. It is also one of the most misunderstood. We believe that the stigma and lack of accurate information surrounding depression continues to prevent those affected from seeking and finding help when it is required.
What we do
Informed by the experiences of people with depression and by our own research, we work to raise awareness amongst the general public of the realities of depression, with a variety of influential and challenging initiatives throughout the year. We also work with healthcare professionals to secure better service provision for people with depression, and lobby government to influence policymaking in this health field.
What we want to achieve
Through our campaigning activity, we want to see:
- Increased awareness of the realities of depression amongst the general public
- Better service provision for people affected by depression
- Improved access to high quality healthcare for people affected by depression
- More research into depression
- People affected by depression influencing and guiding the support and services that they receive.
Events & initiatives
Throughout the year we target the public, press and parliamentarians with a variety of influential and challenging events and initiatives.
For example, National Depression Week is an annual initiative supported by health professionals, politicians, celebrities and the media. Each year we select a specific campaign theme for the week, raising awareness of a particularly serious or prevalent aspect of depression.
In 2000, we targeted depression in young people, taking the issue into universities, colleges and schools, reaching lecturers and teachers as well as other educational support staff and Students' Unions. Last year we broke new ground by raising awareness of the horrific link between depression and suicide. Entitled 'Suicide - It Doesn't Have to Happen', this initiative generated acres of press coverage, bringing the issue to the forefront of the healthcare agenda. This year's campaign highlighted depression and work. Please click here for more information.
Although still relatively new, National Depression Week has made real progress in changing the way in which the public looks at depression and the manner in which it is reported by the press.
To ensure that our voice is heard at the highest levels of government, Depression Alliance services the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Groupon Clinical Depression. This group, chaired by Julie Morgan MP, seeks to provide a forum for MPs and Peers to discuss clinical depression related issues, and to raise particular areas of concern with government or other policy makers.
Each year, we highlight examples of mental health professionals who provide outstanding treatment and support to patients with depression, through our Lundbeck Award for Good Practice in Depression. This Award promotes good practice in this field by thanking and praising those professionals offering exceptional treatment, whilst encouraging those who are 'not so good' to change their ways.
About 1 in 6 people who have had some common kinds of depression eventually commit suicide.2
Seven out of ten people with depression say that their work has contributed to their illness. One in two people do not tell their employer about their depression, either for fear of losing their job or being thought 'weak' or 'unstable'. 3
It is estimated that suicide accounts for one-fifth of deaths in young people. There are nearly 900 suicides by young people under 25 in the UK and Ireland every year - more than 2 per day 4
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