If the past 20 years have taught us anything, it’s that words matter, especially when it comes to topics that have stigma attached to them, such as mental health, HIV and AIDS, and sexuality.
That’s why educating ourselves, and others, around more helpful words to use is really important. It’s one of the things that the Masiviwe #Letsbeheard project is aiming to achieve, and has also been an aspect of the LALA, #Putstigmatobed LGBTQIA+ campaign.
The research that we did to come up with the messaging for the Masiviwe campaign highlighted that many young people feel that their mothers and grandmothers often reject conversations about depression and don’t consider it to be something serious. The need for increasing people’s knowledge on mental health was expressed by both young and old people.
Follow our social media (MasiviweZA on all the platforms) and visit our website (www.masiviwe.org.za), where we’ll be continuing to focus on mental health literacy in 2023.
