About Fairness
Kiwis pride themselves on a sense of fair play.
It's About Fairness asks New Zealanders to consider the effects of their actions and to help promote fair treatment for people with experience of a mental illness. We are asking community leaders, whanau, local councils, iwi, employers, and individuals how they can promote a fairer society for those people with experience of mental illness.
A recent Like Minds, Like Mine online poll on discrimination faced by people with an experience of mental illness showed that over three quarters of respondents had faced some form of discrimination as a result of disclosing their mental illness.
This is a worrying reflection of the level of unfair treatment still faced by people with experience of a mental illness today. One of the biggest barriers to recovery is discrimination and putting an end to it is just as important as providing other more practical support.
It's simply not fair to treat people with experience of mental illness in a negative or disparaging way.
Like Minds, Like Mine will be shining a light on this treatment by highlighting people's stories of discrimination. Each one will last between one and three months and will focus on a particular topic.
Our first topic was on personal discrimination and our second is on employment.
The topics we have chosen to present are those people tell us are common, everyday experiences and are areas where the programme can make a positive difference for people. Future topics will include friends and family, self discrimination and parenting.
Each topic will introduce new faces and voices to talk about their experience of mental illness and what they view as the important messages for the wider public.
