Cleveland Police Renews Pledge to Challenge Mental Health Stigma on World Mental Health Day

Cleveland Police Chief Constable Richard Lewis has renewed a pledge to challenge mental health stigma this World Mental Health Day (Thursday 10^th October).

The Time to Change pledge is a social movement developed by the Blue Light Programme which encourages discussion around mental health in order to end discrimination. It shows a commitment to challenging mental health stigma and promoting positive wellbeing. 

By signing the pledge, the Chief Constable has agreed to help officers, staff and volunteers to speak more openly about mental health and to seek support when they need it, help improve mental health awareness within the service, which will better enable them to look out for themselves, their team and members of the public and support staff and volunteers in order to help prevent problems.

Chief Constable Lewis said: “The Time to Change pledge now has support from over 1,200 organisations, employing over two million people. I want to pledge my support to all employees and volunteers at Cleveland Police to help challenge the stigma around mental health and encourage anyone who may be affected by these issues to speak out and seek support.” 

Inspector Phil Spencer, Blue Light Co-ordinator and Wellbeing Team, said: “One in four people are affected by mental health issues every year and it is vitally important, particularly in careers such as policing where there are many challenging roles, that those people are offered as much help and support as possible, without the discrimination and the stigma that some people have sadly been faced with.”

Earlier this week, officers and staff from Cleveland Police and colleagues from partner agencies donated £3,600 to Redcar and Cleveland Mind following a 20.5-mile sponsored walk from Whitby to Saltburn in May this year.  

To learn more about the Time to Change pledge, visit: https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/about-us