Mental Health Awareness Week 2020

18th May 2020

Mental Health Awareness

This week is Mental Awareness Week where the focus is on finding help and support for your mental health.

Visit the Mental Health website for more information on the campaign

Looking after your mental health

During these difficult and unprecedented times of the Coronavirus, it is no wonder that people are feeling more anxious. Not being able to see loved ones, living in fear of catching a deadly virus and being away from our normal routines can have a big impact on our mental and physical health.  So it is important that we look after our general wellbeing and maintain good mental health.

Looking after our mental health helps us relax more, achieve more and enjoy our lives more.

Susan Brennan, our Medical Adviser, has put together a blog with some self-help tips and resources for dealing with Covid-19 related anxiety.

Every Mind Matters Campaign

Public Health England launched a major new mental health campaign, called ‘Every Mind Matters’. We really rate this these resources. You can download them below to learn more about the campaign and find out how you can take advantage of a range of opportunities available. By completing a short online quiz you will get a free Action Plan with simple steps to help you look after your mental health, helping you sleep better, stay connected, daily activities and where to get advice.

Visit the Every Mind Matters resource pages

One of the H&W team members, Michelle, has found the Every Mind Matters resource really useful while she has been working from home, isolating from friends and family. Here she shares her experience of it.

Lockdown – what Lockdown?

Like everyone, trying to adapt to ‘Lockdown’, has been challenging. One minute I had my weekly routine of doing and going where I liked, seeing my family when I wanted, then all of a sudden, it has been taken away from me.

So how have I coped with it? Fortunately my work life has not been affected as I am able to work my normal hours, although now working from home. However I am still able to talk to lots of beneficiaries.

The big change for me was my home life. It was not just my daily routine that was affected, but my being at home had an impact on my husband’s routine. Also, because of the restricted times you could go out to exercise, it impacted on my dog’s routine. My daily running and weekly Park run stopped and by week two the topics of conversation were running quite low.

Daily and regular news updates begun to get a little overwhelming so I needed to do something about it.

I went on the ‘Every Mind Matters’ website and completed their quiz.

It only has 5 questions; How was I feeling, what was my mood like, how well was I sleeping, how anxious and how stressed was I feeling. By answering these honestly, I was emailed a report together with ideas to help me manage.

My report was all about ‘setting the right boundaries’ at home, with ideas on how to work from home and be kind to myself. This involved 10 minutes work out programmes, plus suggestions to learn and do something different. With this in mind I am refreshing myself on learning British Sign Language and rediscovering crosswords and word puzzles.

I receive a weekly update from Every Mind Matters, just checking in with me and giving me other suggestions and ideas.

Now I find that I am managing very well. I have a good work life balance, keep in touch with my girls, exercise, plus have great pleasure in learning something new.

It's been really worthwhile and I recommend that you give it a go.

How can the Trust help?

If you are feeling anxious or just want to  speak to someone about how you are feeling, we have staff at the Trust who would be happy to speak with you. Just call the Health & Wellbeing Team on 01480 474074 or email us.

We've also got more information to support positive mental health and tips on how to get a better night's sleep.