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Depression victim’s family help launch daily’s mental health campaign

A fight to get better mental health treatment on a regional daily’s patch has been launched by the newspaper.

The Eastern Daily Press began its Mental Health Watch campaign on Friday, with the aim of also ending the stigma surrounding mental health issues by raising awareness of the problem.

The campaign was launched with the backing of David and Pimporn Boulton, whose 26-year-old daughter Jacqui died last month after suffering from years of depression and eating disorders, as well as anxiety and a mild form of self-harm.

Friday’s edition of the EDP featured Jacqui on its front page, pictured below.

EDP health

David Powles, investigations editor for the EDP’s owner Archant, said: “Mental health has been a subject we’ve followed closely in recent years, but it has become increasingly clear over the past few months this needed to step the coverage up a notch.

“The mental health trust for our region, Norfolk and Suffolk, remains the only service of its type in the country in special measures.

“While some of the reasons for that are out of the trust’s hands that is a situation that cannot carry on and will be one of ten key areas we will focus on as part of our manifesto.

“There remains a stigma attached to mental health and hopefully by putting more of a focus on the issue we can encourage more of our readers to not only speak up but also become aware of the warning signs in those suffering.”

An increasing number of people suffer from mental health issues and it can affect one in four people in their lifetime.

In Norfolk and Suffolk, the number of cases referred to the region’s health trust has soared, with children increasingly affected.

In spite of this, funding from the government is lacking compared to other areas of the health sector.

The campaign is set to be backed by other Archant titles across East Anglia this week.

Speaking of the Boultons’ support for the campaign, David added: “The campaign was launched after the family of a 26-year-old Lowestoft woman who tragically died after suffering from mental health problems for many years agreed they wanted to do all they could to help others going through the same thing.

“This gave us an extremely powerful front page and double page spread, the reaction to which has been fantastic.

“On the face of it mental health may not appear the most user-friendly subject on which to launch a campaign, but with growing numbers of people affected, combined with a reduction in cash to tackle the problem, its vital we fight for those who may otherwise struggle to have their stories heard.”

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  • October 27, 2015 at 5:27 pm
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    (Apologies predictive text) It’s great news to see a newspaper take up such an important cause. However, I’m disappointed at Hold The Front Page’s use of the term “mild self harm”. There’s no such thing! You don’t read about a mild form of cancer or a mild form of asthma so please don’t use this term to describe mental health problems. We need to be breaking down stigma not adding to it.

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