Breaking the silence: oral history as an anti-stigma intervention in community mental health

Abstract Stigma in mental health operates not only through prejudice but through forms of silence, erasure, and testimonial dismissal that obstruct recognition and care. This article examines how participatory oral history can function both as a humanities method of memory-making and as a community-based, anti-stigma practice, drawing on four oral history projects (2009–2025) conducted by the mental health charity, Mind in Bexley, London, UK. These projects involved over 150 participants, including people bereaved by suicide, unpaid carers, migrant communities, and individuals affected by COVID-19. Co-researchers with lived experience were involved in project design, data collection, analysis, and public dissemination, ensuring that epistemic authority was shared rather than extracted. Narrative interviews were analysed thematically with attention to testimonial and hermeneutical injustice, and disseminated through exhibitions and cultural outputs. Across projects, participants described stigma as silencing, invisibility, and dismissal, while oral history was experienced as creating dialogical spaces that validated voice, redistributed recognition, and challenged public misconceptions. By integrating oral history with participatory and co-produced approaches, the article illustrates how cultural testimony may generate counter-memory, foster empathy, and contribute to wider conversations about prevention and early intervention in mental health. While not designed as an evaluative intervention study and not measuring stigma-reduction outcomes, the findings contribute to interdisciplinary debates on recognition, participatory knowledge-making, and anti-stigma communication, positioning participatory oral history as a distinctive and transferable model that warrants further evaluative research within community mental health settings.