Vision

Mentalympians is a mental health community development initiative to build a multimedia 'community channel' on the Internet. It will be controlled collectively by mental health consumers through an international network of consumer groups. Channel programming will feature 'mentaympians' who demonstrate effectively the resilience, creativity, talent, intelligence and humanity possessed by people with mental health problems, in order to reduce self-stigma in society. It will simultaneously raise awareness about the many different ways in which individuals recover, thus helping to improve self-efficacy and inspire hope. In this way, this community channel concept is an innovative peer support program for the 21st century, which applies existing technology to deliver social modeling to the international community in a cost effective manner. A global/local strategy for such a website will also help individuals engage with local support groups to reduce social isolation and raise awareness of services in their communities. Furthermore, by virtue of its community development structure and the influential nature of media generally, Mentalympians will contribute to directed social change on individual, community and societal levels.