BOROUGH chiefs are working with a west Cheshire charity to bid for £25,000 that will be used to tackle the stigma around mental health.

Cheshire West and Chester Council will apply for funding to set up a Time to Change Hub in partnership with local mental health charity Chapter.

At a Cheshire West health and wellbeing board meeting last Wednesday, members endorsed the bid, which must be submitted by November 16.

Ceriann Tunnah, public health registrar, said: “Essentially the priority is reducing the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health and mental illness.

“One of the ways that they [Time to Change] do that is by funding hubs in local communities.

“They are partnerships that are about bringing people together to challenge that stigma and discrimination, and at the centre of all that are individuals that have got lived experience around mental illness.”

Time to Change is a project run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, which is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund.

It has already established 16 funded hubs in England.

The £25,000 will be available for an 18-month period, and if successful CWAC – as the ‘hub host’ – will work a number of organisations such as Chapter, Chester Plus, Mid Cheshire Mind and the Cheshire West and Chester Mental Health Forum in a bid to tackle mental health stigma.

The hub will also work to engage other employers and organisations – with CWAC hoping to link up with the University of Chester on the project.

Cheshire West residents who can share their personal experience of mental health and mental illness will be signed up as ‘champions’ as part of the project.

Chapter, which works with individuals with severe and enduring mental illness, has been chosen as the hub’s coordinator – meaning it will be the driving force behind the Cheshire West hub if CWAC’s bid is successful.