Shift Update: November 2008

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Shift Review Panel

The Shift Review Panel's first set of reviews are now available.

The Shift Review Panel assesses the quality and impact of materials designed to help employers promote mental wellbeing and manage mental ill health in the workplace. The panel is funded by Shift, but operates independently.

Find out more about the Shift Review Panel here

Mad About Football

Thank you to everyone who attended the Mad About Football tournament and conference and helped make these events such a success.

You can now see photos and video from the tournament and conference on the Mad About Football pages.

Find out more about Mad About Football

Shift Update: August 2008

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New look website launched

If you've recently visited the Shift website, you will have noticed that we have made some big changes to how the site looks and works.

We hope that you find the new site easier to navigate and more pleasant to use.

Behind the scenes we've also improved things so we can add information and new features much more quickly and easily. In the coming months, you can expect us to add photographic exhibitions, videos and other materials that we would not have been able to make available using our old system. We're also looking to link in with other sites and services like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter to help us spread news about Shift and other anti-stigma messages much further than was possible before.

For the moment, the big changes are as follows:

News section

We've added a news section to the site. This will allow new visitors to find out about our recent publications and work, and also keep people updated with other important anti-stigma and discrimination news and events. We'll still be using the Shift Update mailing list to alert you to important news from Shift.

Bookmark button

We've added a bookmark button to the foot of every page. Use the Email option to send the web address of a page to a friend or colleague. If you use a social bookmarking website like Digg, Delicious or StumbleUpon, you can help spread the word about our work with this new feature.

TV listings

We've improved the way that the TV listings page works. We'll now be able to add much more information about each programme. In the future, we'll be looking to add contact information for many of the programmes that we feature, meaning you'll be able to get in touch directly with the programme makers to let them know if you thought the programme was particularly good or bad.

Better organisation

We've grouped together all the areas in which we work into one place. If you want to find out about all the areas in which we work, visit the Our Work section.

Improved microsites

The Shift Line Managers' Web Resource and What's The Story Media Handbook microsites have also been upgraded. The changes will allow us to add extra information and case studies to these sites.

http://www.shift.org.uk/employers

http://shift.org.uk/mediahandbook

The changes mean that the web addresses of some of our pages have now changed so you may have to update some of your old bookmarks. If you know of a publication or website that is linking to a page that has now moved, please let us know and we will do what we can to fix it for you.

We’d love to know what you think about the new site. Please visit the Get Involved section to find out how you can give your feedback.

Shift Update: June 2008

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Shift's 'Attitudes to Mental Illness 2008' research report published

National Statistics logo
Shift's national survey into attitudes towards mental illness has been published. The full report can be downloaded from the Department of Health website at the following address:

http://snipurl.com/attitudes08

Mind Over Matter 2 media research published

Mind Over Matter 2 is Shift's second report analysing media reporting of mental illness, following on from the first report which looked at news coverage in 2005. It serves as a benchmark to show whether reporting is improving. This report, which looks at coverage from March and October 2006, shows there is a long way to go. 

A follow up report will be published later in 2008.

Download Mind Over Matter 2 from the Shift Media Network.
Download Mind Over Matter 1 from the Shift Media Network.

Find out more about research commissioned by Shift.

Shift launches 'What's the Story?'

Shift has today published a new handbook that will help the media improve public understanding of mental illness.

The handbook, 'What's the Story?: Reporting Mental Health and Suicide', gives practical guidance to the media on covering suicide, mental illness and violent crime by psychiatric patients.

It follows a survey which found three out of four people think the media fails to properly inform the public about mental illness.

It focuses particularly on setting rare but sensational murders carried out by a small number of people with mental health problems in a wider context. It is believed that coverage of these cases contributes to the widespread misconception that many people with experience of mental health problems are violent. In fact, millions of people have mental health problems and very few are violent.

The guidance gives journalists advice on how to avoid causing needless offence to the many readers, viewers and listeners affected by mental health problems. It highlights international evidence that careless reporting of suicides triggers copycat suicides and encourages the media to include helpline details - 'sensitive' reporting can literally save lives.

For more information and to download a copy of What's the Story, go here:
http://shift.org.uk/mediahandbook

Shift's Line Managers' Resource published

Shift has published the Line Managers' Resource, a document that gives practical advice to managing and supporting people with mental health problems in the workplace.

The Line Managers' Resource is a booklet and website that gives advice and information for managing and supporting people with mental health problems in the workplace.

The Line Managers' Web Resource website also gives advice and information for employees to help them assess their own needs and plan for meetings with their manager.

See the Line Managers' Resource website for more information.