Mind (charity)
Mind logo
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| Motto | For better mental health |
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| Formation | 1946 |
| Headquarters | Stratford, London |
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Region served
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England and Wales |
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President
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Stephen Fry |
| Website | www.mind.org.uk |
Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales. Founded in 1946 as the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH), it celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2006.
Mind offers information and advice to people with mental health problems and lobbies government and local authorities on their behalf. It also works to raise public awareness and understanding of issues relating to mental health. Since 1982, it has awarded an annual prize for "Book of the Year" having to do with mental health, in addition to three other prizes
Over 180 local Mind associations (independent, affiliated charities) provide services such as supported housing, floating support schemes, care homes, drop-in centres and self-help support groups. Local Mind associations are often very different in size, make up and character—it is a common misconception that they all work to the same policy and procedural framework. Mind is a national brand but all local associations are unique, although they do all sign up to certain shared aims and ethical guidelines.
Mind was originally known as the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH), founded in 1946 from three voluntary organisations that provided services for the "maladjusted, emotionally disturbed or mentally handicapped to any degree." The name MIND was introduced in 1972, and the lowercase version "Mind" was introduced in the 1990s.
The National Association for Mental Health was formed (initially as national Council) by the merging of the following three organisations toward the end of the second world war:
The NCMH had been an organisation of psychiatrists and psychologists, while the CAMH comprised representatives of various voluntary bodies. Among other things, they helped run and monitor institutions for the mentally handicapped, and developing training for mental health professionals. They were both part of the social hygiene movement, and had advocated eugenics and sterilisation as a means of dealing with those considered too mentally deficient to be assisted into healthy productive work and contented family life.
The beginnings of the National Association for Mental Health also coincided with the development of the National Health Service and the welfare state.
In 1969, numerous Scientologists joined the NAMH and attempted to ratify as official policy a number of points concerning the treatment of psychiatric patients. When their identity was realised they were expelled from the organisation en masse. The Church of Scientology in 1971 unsuccessfully sued the NAMH over the matter in the High Court, and the case became notable in British charity law.
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