Member Spotlight October 2018
SIND in a few lines?
Established in 1960, SIND (the Danish Association for Mental Health) was the first organisation in Denmark to advocate understanding and tolerance of people living with mental ill health and their families.
Today, many Danish organisations focus on mental health. However SIND remains one of the number one references regarding mental health for many Danes. Despite a small headquarter of 11 employees, SIND was in 2016 the most quoted mental health organisation in the media. In a 2017 analysis led by a recognised Danish political media – SIND was considered the most influential organisation in this area.
Hundreds of volunteers are engaged in SIND’s activities everyday. At the heart of SIND’s culture and activities is the belief that all Danes with all background, experiences, and diagnoses should and can join forces to create results: Most of our volunteers are people who have personal experience of mental ill health and their relatives.
What are SIND’s main priorities?
SIND works to improve mental health visibility in the media and seeks to influence political decisions at national and local levels. SIND – as the only Danish mental health organisation – is represented in local psychiatric patient complaints boards.
SIND offers a wide range of activities and services for people living with mental ill health and their relatives. One of these services includes telephone counselling reachable 60 hours / week. We also have 49 volunteers based local committees. SIND runs several projects, often in partnership with local authorities or other organisations. Most of our projects focus on preventing loneliness, encouraging peer support or paving the way to employment.
SIND promotes understanding of mental ill health through online and offline information.
What are your main priorities?
Currently, some of our areas of focus are:
- Influencing Danish psychiatry: in recent years, psychiatry has gained attention from politicians and the media. It is an ideal time for achieving improvements in treatment through long-term reforms and increasing resources.
- Increasing and promoting peer work: People who have experienced mental ill health are experts by experience. Their experience is valuable. SIND works to increase Peer Work within NGOs, at work and in the health system.
- Finding alternatives to forced treatment: Despite some positive developments in several parts of the Danish psychiatric system, forced treatment remains used too often in Denmark. SIND works for a psychiatry which has the resources to prevent conflicts and physical restraint.
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