University News Last updated 12 January 2016
Comedy Queen Jo Brand today said that removing the stigma around mental health was one of the biggest challenges facing the illness, as she collected a university honour for her work in the field.
Brand picked up an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University during a ceremony at Birmingham Symphony Hall today (Tuesday January 12), recognising her work to raise awareness of mental illness.
Speaking about some of the challenges faced by mental health professionals she said that stigma still existed which prevented people from talking about it.
Before beginning a 25-year comedy career Brand trained as a mental health nurse at Maudsley and Royal Bethlem Hospitals in London and has continued to campaign for a range of charities in the sector.
She said: “I think one of the problems around mental health is, it is in reality a lack of funding and I’m not blaming that on anyone in particular.
“I also couple that with the stigma that still exists around mental health which is that people are still ashamed to talk about it and to admit it.
“So I think the more we can bring it out in the open the better and then hopefully governments will recognise the importance of funding it in the way that other services are funded as well.”
Brand is a regular panellist on TV shows like the satirical ‘Have I Got News for You’ and the fact finding ‘QI’.
In 2014 she was named presenter of the BBC’s ‘Great British Bake Off: Exta Slice’, a comedic spin-off from the hit bakery show.
Her doctorate was presented in front of hundreds of students also graduating from the University’s Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences.
She also joked of her pleasure at receiving the doctorate and talked of the importance of the nursing profession.
“I think it’s absolutely essential that we keep providing new nurses. And what I would say to new nurses is, don’t forget the actual nursing component.
“Because I think when you have a degree and you are very skilled and have the knowledge of nursing it’s very easy to forget that you also need to be a kind person and you also need to do the not so glamorous stuff as well.”
In 2014 Brand was named Charity Champion at the Third Sector Awards.