Blog

One of our founding partners, Rethink Mental Illness, provides the Advice and Information Service (RAIS) – a helpline that offers practical help with a range of topics, as well as advising people affected by mental illness of their rights, helping them identify their options and empowering them to take action. Supporting the small team of staff (Advice and Information Officers) who run the service, is a large team of volunteers who equip people with the information they need to get the right help. Together, the RAIS volunteers and staff make an invaluable contribution to the service.

Staff across the UK will come together to raise vital funds for us over the next two years to help us reach even more people affected by poor mental health.

We've partnered with luxury online florist, Bloom to highlight the importance of bringing joy and support to friends or relatives who might be having a difficult time after the past 15 months.

This Volunteers’ Week (1-7 June 2021), we’re exploring the mutually beneficial experience of giving your time to volunteering. Sarah, our fantastic colleague and Partnerships Manager, shares her story of how her endeavours helping others ultimately helped her.

The Mental Health UK corporate partnership with Johnson & Johnson UK aims to improve the quality of life of people severely affected by mental illness and reduce pressure on acute clinical services. Through our partnership, we are working on a new model of community care, to provide support for people living with poor mental health, linking them to non-clinical services that meet their holistic needs, including finance, housing and social care.

Our young people’s programme, Bloom equips people aged 14 to 18 with the tools and knowledge to build their resilience, so they can better maintain their mental health through life’s transitions.

Johnston Connelly is our Events Fundraising and Engagement Officer and a valued colleague of ours. While on furlough last year, he decided to learn something new and teach himself to sew. Noticing his newfound sense of purpose, Johnston had an appetite to take his sewing to the next level and started to immerse himself in YouTube videos and sewing books to build on his skills. His new project had a profound and lasting impact on his wellbeing - Johnston told us that he finds sewing relaxing and rewarding, and that he'd love to have his own fashion design business one day. He's already started making his own clothes... Sew far sew good!

Rosie Robson is an Account Executive and one of the UK hub leads for the ‘Be Wellness’ team at Salesforce, our valued corporate partners. We recently teamed up with Salesforce, supporting them as they launched a global wellness initiative. They managed to encourage 350 people to exercise over 21 days in an effort to keep fit, socialise and raise vital funds for the people we support. We were so impressed that they raised an incredible £2,500 and even managed to build a running community at work, maintaining their fitness levels beyond the event. Hear from Rosie below on how important being active is for everyone at Salesforce.

Kathy O’Callaghan was a loving aunt and a wonderful friend to Laura. After she took her own life in October 2020, Laura and her good friend Jane decided to take action and raise awareness around mental health, in her memory. They took on a 27km walking challenge on the beautiful island of Lanzarote, wanting to do something that enhanced their fitness and made them feel both physically and mentally good. And they managed to raise an astonishing €2,773! Jane tells us their story and explains why this walk was so important to her and Laura.