About SANE

SANE is a UK-wide charity established in 1986, to improve the quality of life for people affected by mental illness, following the overwhelming public response to a series of articles featured in The Times entitled The Forgotten Illness. Written by Marjorie Wallace, the organisation’s Founder and Chief Executive, the articles exposed the neglect of people suffering from enduring mental illness and the poverty of services and information for individuals and families.

SANE has three objectives:

• to raise awareness and respect for people with mental illness and their families, improve education and training, and secure better services.
• to undertake research into the causes of serious mental illness through The Prince of Wales International Centre for SANE Research.
• to provide information and emotional support to those experiencing mental health problems, their families and carers through SANELINE.
  

Changing attitudes
SANE campaigns to combat stigma and ignorance and improve care, giving over 200 interviews each year on national and local television and radio, generating thousands of column inches in the press, and participating in a wide range of government, professional and service initiatives. Major issues spearheaded by SANE have been the restoration of psychiatric beds and the provision of support in the community, access to the newer ‘atypical’ medications, and the links between cannabis and psychosis. Recent campaigns have highlighted prevention and care for those at risk of suicide and self-harm.

Seeking causes
Psychosis, which affects 1 in 100 people worldwide, has never attracted funds for research in the same way as other conditions, and there is still no known cause or cure. SANE is unique amongst UK mental health charities in investigating the causes of serious mental illness at The Prince of Wales International Centre for SANE Research in Oxford. The Centre, an international forum for discussion in the field, aims to establish the causes of and better treatments for schizophrenia and manic depression, and to disseminate education, awareness and information to scientists and the public.

Providing care
SANE was the first organisation to pioneer a national mental health helpline, SANELINE, in 1992, offering emotional support and crisis care, and access to the SANELINE Information Database containing comprehensive records on local and national mental health services and information on illnesses and symptoms, medications, therapies, treatments and mental health law. Supervised volunteers who have undertaken extensive training endorsed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists respond to callers from the London-based helproom.

SANE’s call-back service, Caller Care provides support to callers at times of crisis or further need, operating during office hours, evenings, nights and weekends.

SANELINE is the only national, out of hours helpline networking callers into the whole range of information and services. Open every day of the year, it is the sole national helpline for all mental health conditions open during evenings, weekends and all holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

SANELINE
Call: 0845 767 8000
(1pm to 11pm every day)

Media Office
Tel: 020 7422 5556
Email: mediarelations@saneline.org

Fundraising
Tel: 020 7422 5544
Email: fundraising@sane.org.uk

The Prince of Wales International Centre for SANE Research
Call 01865 455918

www.sane.org.uk