This case study is about our public relations campaign to raise awareness of mental health service needs and lobby politicians to take action on the mental health public policy issues in ‘A Vision for Change’.

We were retained by Shine (Schizophrenia Ireland) to create and execute a public relations campaign to raise  awareness of mental health service development issues, and to galvanise support for the government’s mental health strategy, ‘A Vision for Change’.

Solution

This campaign was executed mainly through the national print and broadcast media. It also included an online campaigning element – one of the first uses of Digital PR in Ireland.

• The first phase of media relations was aimed at building support for ring-fencing the money raised from selling old Victorian psychiatric hospitals for new community mental health facilities.

• The second phase of media relations attacked the plan to move the Central Mental Hospital from Dundrum to the site of a new prison at Thornton Hall. Former President Mary Robinson also spoke out and said this was wrong.

• We ghost wrote and placed a number of features – each focusing on one of the new community mental health facilities proposed in ‘A Vision for Change’.

• We arranged extended interviews on two of RTE’s most listened-to radio shows, Morning Ireland and The Tubridy Show. We also arranged a television interview on The Afternoon Show on RTE1.

• We produced a special interactive CD for the General Election. This mapped existing mental health facilities constituency-by-constituency, and highlighted the new mental health facilities in the ‘Vision for Change.’ This CD provided the backbone of an online campaigning website developed by the Irish Mental Health Coalition.

Outcome

Shine (Schizophrenia Ireland) raised its profile as a leading advocate of change in mental health service provision and in the promotion of more positive societal attitudes to mental illness.

Post-Script

The Minister of State for Mental Health Services, John Moloney TD, announced on 1 July 2009 that the proposal to relocate the Central Mental Hospital adjacent to a new prison had been abandoned by the Government. We are proud to have been the public relations agency that started the public and political pressure to have that policy jettisoned for a more humane approach.