Give 5: Steps to a Wellbeing Rights Framework focuses on what government and organisations can do to better tackle the mental health crisis. Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing is a public health campaign focusing on what individuals can do to improve their mental health. We can’t have one without the other.

Too often, people battling 'mental health' issues are made to feel like they are the problem. That there's something wrong with their brain, that they're weak, or that they haven't 'tried hard enough'. This only makes things worse.

We know that the world around us shapes us. Poverty, violence, discrimination, isolation and toxic cultures are often the real culprits. The evidence shows that there are serious failures in our systems causing devastating harm to individuals, families and communities. It's time for radical change. That time is now.

Give 5: Steps to a Wellbeing Rights Framework

People with lived experience, along with mental health workers, have created this rights-based framework. It outlines 5 steps which government bodies and organisations can act on to address the 'mental health' crisis.

Quick fixes and band-aid solutions might look good, but don't address the real issues. It's not just about more resources, but how and where the money is spent. We call on the government to adopt this framework and need your help.

Connect the symptoms of mental ill-health to their roots - like poverty, discrimination, loneliness, and violence. Treating 'symptoms' without addressing causes of distress can lead to further blame and shame.

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Be Active in challenging the over-prescription of drugs, respond to individual needs and provide different, community-based options for healing - like therapies, crisis houses, and creative, peer-led interventions.

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Take Notice of people's positive healing experiences. Act on the knowledge and experience of those facing mental health crises and those supporting them, to transform harmful, outdated systems.

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Keep Learning from the failures of previous policy and practice, challenging organisational cultures of secrecy, defensiveness, and blame. Support people's right to openness, honesty, and accountability.

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Give People the dignity, compassion and hope to which they are entitled. Human rights are essential to healing and recovery and must be reflected in mental health, housing, and in all aspects of people's lives.

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Act now to endorse Give 5

Use the form below to show your support, as either an individual or an organisation. Additionally, you can choose to send an email to the Minister for Health, Mike Nesbitt, to urge him to endorse Give 5 too!.