Blog

For many workers, Christmas is a time of year for rest and annual leave. However, for people supporting those living with mental illness or experiencing mental health problems, this isn’t always the case, and in fact it can be the festive period where support is required the most. We spoke to Cathal, Beth and Monika, Rethink Mental Illness mental health recovery workers, about the impact of their work at this time of year.

Christian was born with facial differences known as severe craniofacial anomalies. Growing up, he had over fifty reconstructive surgeries to transform his appearance and improve his confidence and life outcomes. Opening up to the people he loved is what helped Christian change how he thinks and feels about himself physically, which in turn eased his mental health difficulties.

Although the wintertime can be a time for celebration, festivities, and socialising, for many people it can also induce feelings of loneliness, stress, and anxiety. With our physical environment also changing around us, with shorter days and less sunlight, we might need to take extra care to monitor our mental health over these colder months. 

Our Head of Programmes, Tom O’Connor, had the opportunity to visit our Building Bridges project, supporting Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities in Birmingham. The project exists to reduce mental health stigma and improve access to mental health support for these groups, who have traditionally been marginalised, so that they can live healthy and fulfilling lives.

It’s estimated that we consume as much as 60% of our food and drink in the workplace and spend more than 40 years of our life at work. For our partners Eurest and 14forty, workplace caterers, this made them think about the link between nutrition and mealtimes and worker’s mental health. How can you ensure as an organisation you’re supporting employee’s mental health through mealtimes?

There’s much more to a mentally friendly work set up than pretty décor and new plush furnishings. An office space that’s truly inclusive for those living with mental health problems, experiencing poor mental health and that’s psychologically safe and inclusive for all, starts with policy and practice and may include environmental factors such as food and mealtimes and specifically designed office spaces for all types of workers.

Since returning after a 10-year hiatus, the band Doves planned a grand UK tour to take place in 2022, only to announce some time later that all dates would be cancelled due to lead signer Jimi Goodwin experiencing poor mental health. Keen music fan Chris Kelly, struck by Jimi’s story of honesty and full with compassion, decided to fundraise for Mental Health UK by releasing cover songs of some of the band’s well-loved singles.

For World Mental Health Day, we spoke to Rees Bramwell, Senior Nutritionist at our partner Eurest and 14forty. Eurest brings award-winning contract catering services to businesses across the UK, who use their knowledge of how mealtimes and nutrition contribute towards good mental health to promote mentally healthy workplaces up and down the country. We checked in with Rees to find out what they’ve been doing to prioritise mental health, from amending internal policy to creating fundraising schemes.

Fundraiser, Luke Hamer tells us why putting his mental health first made him stronger – as part of our World Mental Health Day campaign encouraging people to make their mental health a priority.

Tying in with our World Mental Health Day campaign encouraging people to make their mental health a priority, our colleague Gemma tells us why looking after her mental health is integral to her quality of life. 

We are deeply saddened by the death of Her Majesty The Queen and offer our condolences to the Royal Family during this time of mourning.

Some of us look forward to the autumn, with the promise of cosy jumpers, hot drinks and spending more time indoors. For some people the upcoming weeks are less appealing, with fewer daylight hours and colder temperatures. As the seasons change, you may notice a shift in your mental health. We’ve put together some helpful guidance on how to manage the transition to autumn and avoid it negatively impacting mental health.

27-year-old Zany lost her close friend to suicide five years ago. Like many people who are bereaved by suicide, she experienced a complex set of emotions following his death and grappled with a sense of detachment and hopelessness. She tells us her story about what helped her to address her grief.

Lourdes Colclough is Rethink Mental Illness’ Head of Suicide Prevention. She talks to us about the part we play in suicide prevention and demonstrates the power of the community to change and save lives.

There is a great need to support the mental health of children and young people in alternative provision education. A 2018 report from the House of Commons Education Committee (Forgotten children: alternative provision and the scandal of ever-increasing exclusions) found that an estimated one in two pupils in Alternative Provision schools have social, emotional and mental health as their primary category of Special Educational Need, as opposed to 1 in 50 in the general population.