A regional daily editor says she wants her newspaper to help end the stigmatisation of people with mental health issues.

The Yorkshire Evening Post launched its #SpeakYourMind campaign to mark World Mental Health Day yesterday.

Outgoing editor Nicola Furbisher, who announced last week she is leaving the YEP at the end of the year, said the media had reinforced “damaging” stigmas in the past.

But in an editorial announcing the campaign’s launch, she said she wanted her newspaper to become “part of the solution rather than adding to the problem.”

The front page of yesterday’s Yorkshire Evening Post

Nicola added: “All of us will be affected by mental illness in some way or form either through suffering ourselves or watching a family member suffer.

“And people with mental health problems say that the social stigma attached to mental ill health can make their difficulties worse and make it harder to recover. This cannot continue.

“We appreciate the media in all its forms has had a role to play over the decades in reinforcing the damaging stigmas around mental health.

“And that’s why today, through #SpeakYourMind, we want to become part of the solution, instead of adding to the problem.”