Dr. Joseph Duffy:

Stigma is very much a live issue in our experience of services. The way we respond to it is by examining the stigma and level of knowledge within different groups. In particular, we work with young people in schools on peer education. Our experience, supported by the evidence, is that peer education is very effective in creating a knowledge base and to encourage young people to connect with other young people. There is a strong peer influence.

There is also a strong influence in the awareness and training provided to adults, whether they are specialists already working with young people or parents working with young people. We do much work with campaigns. A current campaign with one of our sponsors, Lidl, is called One Good Adult and is about promoting the wider initiative. Where we can target, there is good evidence and experience that it is highly effective. The difficulty is in generational shifts and changes.

While young people who are involved, educated and aware have much more knowledge, and their parents are beginning to have it, there are also groups within the wider community where, at times, there may be difficulties. As an anecdote, when we were establishing another office for a Jigsaw service, we encountered a difficulty with a landlord who did not want there to be a mental service, although we tried, brought the tenants to another service and did everything we could. In many ways, we can address stigma where it is clear or obvious with a wider group, which is successful, but pockets of it remain. It is a continuing issue but we invest many resources. Much of the work we do with any of the fundraising sponsors is on awareness raising.