Through research we hope to influence policy and one of the ways this happens is by empowering mentally ill people and others with evidence-based knowledge of the problems that mentally ill people face and how our programmes are providing real and viable solutions.

Advocacy helps ensure that governments deliver on existing policies and pledges they have made, and helps people directly access government facilities. Advocacy also helps form new government policy.

In India, advocacy has been successful in helping the formation of a government psychiatrists group, helping mentally ill people access government services and schemes and encouraging the Indian National Human Rights Commission to intervene to get the Ranchi Institute of Neuro Psychiatry and Allied Services to provide mental health camps in Bihar, which had no psychiatric services of its own.

Advocacy also means raising general public awareness so that pressure for change also comes from the public at large.

In Ghana, Sri Lanka and India, radio shows are used to teach people about mental illness, to raise awareness of the problems of mental health care, and to spread the word that mentally ill people have needs and rights that have to be fulfilled and respected.

Also, other mediums, such as newspaper articles or street theatre are used to tell people about the often-ignored problems of mental illness and why attention should be paid to them.

As well as carrying out advocacy at a national and international level, we are empowering mentally ill people to form their own groups and advocate for their own rights. Read more about this here. >>