Call To Action

We also continue to call for purposeful commitment from government to listen to the stories of persons with PD, to learn from these, and to utilise these learnings within areas such as policy development and implementation.

We also call on organisations working with persons with PD to commit to including their mental health care users in all aspects of anti-stigma policy and programming. We also ask these organisation to encourage persons with PD to share their experiences and to be proud of their stories, with the aim of inspiring compassion, trust and understanding Storytelling has been shown to be an effective tool in terms of advocacy and reducing stigma and improving overall mental health care. It also goes a long way in ensuring the inclusion for persons with PD in all aspects of life (Ball, 2013).

There are a number of activities that will be undertaken by our Mental Health Societies during July. For example, Cape Mental Health will be focusing on sparking conversations in the workplace and encouraging their mental health ambassadors to share their stories of coping and adapting to a formal environment at their workplaces They will also have a storytelling afternoon at one of their residential facilities.

In addition to sharing the PDAM campaign message far and wide, SAFMH will be running a storytelling workshop with persons with PD The workshop will aim to share the structures and fundamentals when it comes to harnessing narratives, with the aim of providing persons with PD with the skills to share their stories and experiences with others.

The information shared in this concept note could also be adopted by stakeholders as part of press statements, infographics, and awareness and/or programmatic interventions that are devised as part of their contributions towards the July 2023 PDAM campaign