Rethink Mental Illness

Rethink commissioned a controversial statue of Sir Winston Churchill in a straitjacket, which was unveiled in The Forum building in Norwich on 11 March 2006, to a mixture of praise and criticism.

The statue was intended to show how people in today's society are stigmatised by mental illness, based on claims that Churchill lived with depression and perhaps bipolar disorder.

However, the statue was condemned by Churchill's family, and described by Sir Patrick Cormack as an insult both to the former prime minister and to people living with mental health problems.

Mark Winstanley succeeded Paul Jenkins as chief executive of Rethink Mental Illness in March 2014.

In 2009, Rethink launched Time to Change, a campaign to reduce mental health discrimination in England, in collaboration with MIND.

In January 2014, Rethink Mental Illness launched a campaign to “Find Mike”, a stranger who talked a 20-year-old man, Jonny Benjamin, out of taking his life in 2008.

[16] The campaign aimed to reunite the two men, with Benjamin seeking to “thank the man who saved my life” after talking him down from Waterloo Bridge, and raise awareness of mental health issues.

The campaign spread quickly on social media, and within two days, the stranger’s fiancée spotted it on Facebook and knew instantly that “Mike” was her partner Neil Laybourn.

In March 2016, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hosted a screening of The Stranger on the Bridge at Kensington Palace, and a discussion alongside Jonny Benjamin.