The best way to prevent and eliminate stigma is to educate people, and that education needs to include stories of individuals’ achieving wellness and other goals as a result of the support they have received.

Please support the New Jersey Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma’s mission by submitting inspiring stories for consideration to be posted on this web page.

The Council will review each submission and reserves the right to edit stories, both written narratives and videos, and to accept or not accept the submissions per appropriateness for this website. Each individual will be notified about whether or not their submission is accepted and will be posted.

Confidentiality will be protected. However, the Council will need to have a signed release form in order to post the stories on the website.

Individuals can contact the Council at GovernorsCouncil.MHStigma@dhs.nj.gov or 609-438-4318 if they have stories posted and decide they no longer want them on the website.

Below are the criteria:

• Demonstrate the positivity resulting from achieving wellness and recovery and note what contributed to the outcome.
• Send a message of hope, learning, humanity and recovery.
• Encourage others to have conversations, open up about difficulties they are experiencing and seek help when it is needed.
• Videos: Maximum of three minutes long.
• Written narratives: Maximum of 500 words.

If you would like to submit a written story or video in a language other than English, please also submit an English translation. As the Council recognizes that additional words are needed in other languages, compared to English, the limits on word count and video length are flexible.

Click here to submit your narrative or video for consideration, along with the signed release form.