Mental Health Awareness Week & Funded Training
What is mental health awareness week?
Mental Health Awareness week is an annual event which takes place each year. It’s a great opportunity to get involved in the conversation about Mental Health, and start taking action to improve our communities. By promoting awareness of Mental Health, we can start to break down barriers to many of those who struggle to speak up and get the help and support they really need.
Each year, there is a theme and this year, the theme for 2022 is: Loneliness.
What does being lonely mean?
Loneliness can mean a number of different things to different people. Typically, loneliness is not just about being sad when you’re on your own, and it’s not dictated by the amount of friends or family you have. It is the lack of connectedness within those relationships that you have, it can leave you feeling isolated and as though your needs are not being met.
We often hear the saying, “you can feel lonely in a room full of people”. That’s because it’s not about having people around you, for many, loneliness can come from a place of not feeling like they belong, or feeling like nobody understands them.
What can we do?
- Reach out & Check in: Whether you reach out to a family member, friend, colleague or even a neighbour, we need to take time to nurture our relationships and check in with each other.
- Talk: Let’s normalise the conversation, because chances are there are others around you who are also feeling lonely. This can create a safe space to be able to talk openly.
- Educate yourself: Learning about mental health, and how it can impact us (either positively or negatively) will help give insight into why you or someone might be feeling a certain way.
- Be mindful of language: Steer away from using labelling terms, as this can create barriers to people opening up and talking about how they may be feeling.
- Include everyone: Loneliness affects everyone, it does not discriminate, so let’s make sure that we’re offering support to everyone and not discriminate.
Training Dates
We currently have a number of Mental Health Awareness courses being funded by Derbyshire County Council. If you’re working to support someone in Derbyshire, please book on using the links below:
For any help or enquiries into training for your organization, please email: training@harmless.org.uk
