Our Mission statement

The Media Action Group exists to promote positive perceptions of mental health  by collaborative working with the media and the general public.

The Stoke-on-Trent based project, Positive Perceptions of Mental Health, achieved considerable success in challenging the stigma and prejudice attached to the reporting of mental distress and mental health issues in general.

James McAteer, who led the project, says, “Inaccurate perceptions and reporting of mental health issues have been fostered by the legacy of an outmoded Victorian asylum system.  The project enabled us to set in place firm foundations for the development of a small independent charity and to begin the process of training people with experience of distress to raise awareness of mental health issues, challenge prejudice and combat stigma. Since the project’s inception, it has been renamed the Media Action Group for Mental Health and has achieved many successes with initiatives like the ‘Plates Project’, a unique idea that encouraged the people of North Staffordshire to think about their own positive perceptions of mental health, and transfer these ideas onto a dinner plate by using a variety of different techniques.  Over 1,000 people returned their plate, which were subsequently exhibited at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, home to one of the largest collections of pottery in the world.