Stephen Fry backs Scots campaign to tackle mental ill health

Stephen Fry has backed a Scottish campaign to raise awareness of mental health problems.

The actor and presenter, who has bipolar disorder, is supporting the Scottish Association for Mental Health’s (SamH) Know Where To Go campaign.

Around 800,000 adults in Scotland wouldn’t know where to turn for support for mental health issues, a YouGov poll found. One in four people a year in Scotland experience poor mental health, official figures show, while SamH estimates mental ill health costs the economy up to £10.7 billion.

Fry said: “I made a film about it [his illness] some years ago and since then I have done my best to try to connect with organisations like SamH to help. The major issue is the fear, if you like, of mental health problems.

“Those of us who suffer from a broken arm or leg find it easy to talk about but when it comes to mental health a lot of us kind of hide the fact something’s wrong.”