AstraZeneca backs mental health campaign

AstraZeneca has helped produce a series of videos to promote Mental Health America's latest campaign.

'Mind Your Health' aims to get people to look beyond the stigma surrounding mental health, and to seek treatment, the charity said.

The videos will focus on Mental Health America (MHA)'s four guiding principles:
•    Prevention for all
•    Early identification and intervention for those on risk
•    Integrated health and behavioural treatment for those who need it
•    Recovery as a goal.

The organisation hopes that the videos will drive the public to its new website, MHA Screening, which encourages people to take a screening test to determine if they are experiencing any mental health symptoms.

The videos will be screened in doctors' practices and elsewhere across the US.  You can view the first one at the top of this page or on YouTube.

“MHA believes that early identification and effective intervention and treatment are essential for people's wellbeing,” said president and CEO Paul Gionfriddo in a blog post on AZ's Health Connections blog.

“The “Mind Your Health” campaign is just our most recent effort to accomplish this objective, and we are very pleased to have AstraZeneca as our partner.”

Gionfriddo added: “We're proud of our partnership with AstraZeneca. We think it will make a huge difference in the lives of so many people.”

“After all, we all know the numbers – half of us will have a diagnosable mental health condition during our lives, and up to 6 per cent of people live with serious mental illnesses.”

AstraZeneca also supports the work being done by a number of other US groups dealing with mental illness, including the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.