Rethinking the Mental Health Narrative Together

Synolos invites you to be a part of a Conversation that Could Shape the Next Twenty Years of mental health.

Join us in-person or online for the Oxfordshire launch of a potential national conversation built on one shared purpose, Rethinking the Mental Health Narrative Together for the next twenty years.

This campaign begins here in our county with the aim, with the right support, to move across the country and spark a conversation that protects the achievements of the last twenty years of mental health awareness while recognising that the narrative must now evolve.

It is a conversation that brings us back to what it means to be human, with complex emotions that deserve understanding in a world that often feels confusing and overwhelming, with the recognition that not all emotions are illnesses, but every emotion deserves to be heard.

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What if the mental health conversation that saved lives is now starting to lose its way?

We need to Rethink Mental Health Together because not all emotions are illnesses, but every emotion deserves to be heard.

Something important is beginning to slip away. For more than thirty years, mental health awareness has helped millions find language, compassion, and hope. It has saved lives, broken silence, and challenged stigma. But now, that progress is at risk.

We must protect but also modernise the mental health awareness narrative, because not all emotions are illnesses, but every emotion deserves to be heard within the different environments of our lives. We are beginning to hear many with strong voices questioning certain aspects of the mental health approach, and if that happens in the wrong and heartless way, we risk those who are struggling with deep mental health illnesses not getting the support they need, or at best being made to doubt or question their professional diagnoses.

If we allow this confusion to continue, we risk destroying decades of progress, undoing twenty to thirty years of awareness that have brought compassion to millions, and sliding back to a time of silence, indifference, and stigma.

We believe it is time for a new kind of awareness, one that recognises the difference between the everyday emotions we all experience and the clinical illnesses that require professional care. Only by doing this can we protect both emotional understanding and those who live with serious, enduring illness.

Our Mission

Our goal is to campaign for an amendment to the Mental Health Act that clearly states that this distinction exists while affirming that only trained professionals can determine where the line lies and when emotional distress becomes a clinical illness requiring diagnosis.

We are also calling for a clearer national awareness programme that helps people recognise this difference, grounded in compassion, education, and truth, underlining our belief that not all emotions are illnesses, but all emotions deserve to be heard.

Why It Matters Now

For over three decades, mental health awareness campaigns have done vital work in reducing stigma and encouraging people to speak out. Yet Barry and the Synolos team have been raising concerns since 2019 that, over time, the language of awareness has blurred the line between natural emotion and diagnosed illness. That confusion now reaches into every corner of society, shaping how we see ourselves, others, and even how the NHS responds.

Phrases like “I’m struggling with my mental health” are now used so widely that we have lost sight of what they truly mean. Are we describing a difficult week or an illness that requires professional treatment?

This confusion has real consequences. It adds pressure to already stretched health services, encourages self-diagnosis, especially among young people through social media, and unintentionally weakens the understanding and compassion available to those living with severe, often life-threatening, mental illness.

Our Call for Change

We are asking leaders, professionals, and the public to unite behind three goals.

1. Amend the Mental Health Act

To ensure it clearly recognises the difference between natural human emotions and diagnosed mental illness while affirming that only trained professionals can determine where that line lies and when distress becomes illness, just as we do for physical health.

This small but vital clarification would protect those in need, reduce confusion, and restore integrity and trust in what mental health truly means. We are not asking Westminster to define that difference; that responsibility rightly belongs to medical professionals. We simply ask that the Act acknowledges that such a difference exists. That one statement could reshape the national conversation.

2. Create a National Distinction Awareness Programme

To help schools, workplaces, and communities understand that there is a difference between emotional experience and mental illness, promoting prevention, understanding, and early support led by professionals rather than online influence.

We propose reserving the term 'mental health' for illness, while introducing 'mental fitness' to describe everyday wellbeing and resilience. This aligns with how we already speak about physical health, where we recognise the difference between general fitness and disease.

3. Renew the National Dialogue

To encourage people to talk openly without medicalising every feeling and to raise awareness of the risks of self-diagnosis to individuals, the NHS, and society.

We rarely say, “That’s not good for my physical health,” when we mean something is simply difficult. Yet today, many avoid emotional challenges by saying, “It’s not good for my mental health.” But what if, in trying to protect ourselves, we have started mistaking effort for harm and, in doing so, lost our resilience?

This campaign is not about silencing anyone. It is about protecting everyone. It is about ensuring every emotion is heard and understood within the right context and that those in deep illness receive the care they truly need.

If we can restore understanding, we can restore hope for those who need help and for those simply learning to feel. Together, we can bring compassion, balance, and confidence back to our national conversation on mental health.

Join us in Rethinking Mental Health Together.

About the Campaign and Its Founder

The Rethinking Mental Health Together campaign is led by Barry Ingleton, mental health author and CEO of Synolos CIC, a community organisation based in Witney that supports education, training, special educational needs, and wellbeing.

Living with bipolar disorder, Barry brings both professional insight and lived experience to this campaign. His two decades of work in education and mental health have shaped a belief that the language of mental health needs reform, not to silence people, but to give meaning and protection to both emotional and clinical experiences.

This movement seeks to protect those living with serious mental illness while helping everyone express emotion freely, without fear of being labelled or dismissed.

Also check out other Health & Wellness events in Witney, Workshops in Witney.