On February 4, SSA Youth members put up a dynamic dance performance at the launch of the Silver Ribbon Project that was initiated to fight stigma against mental illness. Held at the Toa Payoh HDB Hub Mall, the Guest of Honour for this event was President S R Nathan. On this day, a new non-profit organisation named the Silver Ribbon (Singapore) was also established with the support of the Institute of Mental Health.
The Silver Ribbon programme aims to change the misconceptions of mental illness through public education. One objective of the programme is to help patients find work through encouraging more companies to employ recovered patients in the “Fund-2-Work” Programme. The “Fund-2-Work” programme will assist in the training, job search and placement starting in the food and beverage, retail and data entry sectors. About 70 people will benefit from the programme every year.
Dr Lim Chang Hwa, president of the Silver Ribbon (Singapore), said: “This allows recovering patients to slowly get back to society and when they get to work they will find meaning in their lives and this will stop them from regressing into the mental illness again.”
This is the first event to involve the participation of mental health providers and non-profit organisations such as the Institute of Mental Health, Singapore Association for Mental Health, National Philanthropy and Volunteer Centre, to update heartlanders on the available services available for people with mental health issues.
Other events held on this day included free mental health screening for the public, sale of books and artwork produced by people with mental illness.
(SSA Times issue 232)
