“Stand to Reason trustee, Liz Miller - Mind Mental Health Champion of the Year”

Dr Liz Miller announced as Mind Champion of the Year 2008 and Mary O’Hara wins journalist of the Year

Mental health charity Mind announced Dr Liz Miller as Mind Champion of the Year 2008 at its annual awards ceremony in central London hosted by Melvyn Bragg.

The Mind Champion of the Year Award, which is voted for by visitors to Mind’s website, honours those who have made a significant contribution to challenging discrimination against people with mental health problems.

Liz Miller is a founding trustee of Stand to Reason and a practising GP and Occupational Health doctor in London. Liz has bipolar disorder and has written and spoken openly about her self management strategies, last year appearing on Stephen Fry’s documentary The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive. She has been an inspiration to other doctors and was co-founder of the Doctors’ Support Network, a self-help group for doctors who are experiencing mental health problems.

On receiving the accolade, Liz said: “I’m very touched to receive the award. It’s really important that we change attitudes about mental health, and a good starting point is changing attitudes within the medical profession. Through the Doctors’ Support Network we aim for doctors to learn to be kinder to themselves and others and to let them know they’re not alone. Doctors get ill too – we’re only human after all.”

Mind Chief Executive Paul Farmer said: “Liz deals admirably with her own mental health problems whilst working in a demanding profession and finding time to be a passionate mental health campaigner. Being a GP herself, she was aware that doctors often don’t make easy patients and saw a need to give them someone to confide in who would truly understand their perspective. She is a fantastic role model and a worthy winner of this year’s Champion of the Year Award.”

Liz received hundreds of votes, beating off competition from mental health campaigners, journalists and other medical professionals to claim the title.

Stephen Fry, last year’s winner of the Mental Health Champion of the Year Award, has recently joined us and given his personal endorsement to Stand to Reason’s campaign.

Mind Journalist of the Year was awarded to Society Guardian journalist Mary O’Hara, who was particularly commended at the awards for her coverage of the launch of Stand to Reason.

Fit for purpose:”Not broken, not tarnished, not a sub-species”,* by Mary O’Hara, The Guardian – Wednesday 14 November 2007, was a campaigning front page article for the Society Guradian and included two very popular blogs and a full series of podcasts online with founding members of Stand to Reason. link