Jayasree Kalathil has been selected to join eleven other service users/survivors to form the user/carer advisory group for Time to Change, an anti-discrimination programme aiming to tackle the stigma of mental distress. The advisory group named themselves “Lived Experience Advisory Panel” (LEAP) in their first meeting in Birmingham. LEAP will have a strategic role, advising on service user involvement across the various components of the Time to Change programme. Jayasree is one of the three members from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds and hopes to be able to play a part in making sure that issues of race and culture are centrally placed in the fight against stigma and discrimination.

Time to Change is a joint programme between Mental Health Media, Rethink, MIND and the Institute of Psychiatry and has been awarded £18 million by the Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief. The programme runs till 2011.