World Mental Health Day 2024

On World Mental Health Day, let’s all come together to talk about mental health and show everyone that mental health matters. Talking about our mental health can help us cope better with life’s ups and downs. So, on World Mental Health Day and beyond it, why not check in with your friends, family, peers, or colleagues?

World Mental Health Day is celebrated every year on 10 October. This year’s theme set by the World Federation of Mental Health is workplace mental health. The theme highlights the importance of addressing mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, for the benefit of people, organisations, and communities.

Top tips to look after your mental health

Here are some ways to stay mentally well

Talk about your feelings

Just being listened to can help you feel supported and less alone.

Contact a mental health first aider

Stay active

Physical activity is not only good for your body, but it’s also great for your mind.

Find an exercise that suits you

Get a good night’s sleep

Sleep and mental health are closely linked

Practice mindfulness

A way to be fully engaged and present in the moment..

View Our Guided Meditations

Eat well

A balanced diet can improve your sense of well-being and your mood.

View Our Recipe Directory

Keep in touch with friends and family

This helps you deal with the stresses of life, makes you feel cared for and offers a different viewpoint.

Tea & Talk

Pick an environment where you feel comfortable and where you can talk without distractions. Sometimes its easier to talk side by side rather than face-to-face, so perhaps you could go for a walk in the local park or have a chat while doing another activity such as making a cup of tea or cooking.

Give the quiz a go and potentially win a small prize

Talking tips

Talking to people about mental health can hugely benefit both parties, but we know that having these conversations, especially if you have never done so before, isn’t always easy. There is no right or wrong way to talk about mental health but we’ve created these tips to support you with those conversations.

Think about the time and place

Pick an environment where you feel comfortable and where you can talk without distractions. Sometimes its easier to talk side by side rather than face-to-face, so perhaps you could go for a walk in the local park or have a chat while doing another activity such as making a cup of tea or cooking.

Know your limits

You will have your own limits on the support that you can provide and it’s important to take care of yourself too. Give yourself time to rest and process what they have told you or what’s happened.
Try to help them create a support network of other friends, relatives and mental health professionals who can help them too.

Listen and ask questions

Make sure you give your undivided attention and listen actively when someone is talking. Let them finish their sentences and thoughts without interrupting and encourage them to talk by asking open rather than leading questions’, for example you could say “Why don’t you tell me how you are feeling?” rather than “I can see you are feeling very low”. Try to keep your language neutral and give the person time to answer

Don’t change the way you treat them

If someone opens up to you about a mental health problem it’s important to remember that they are the same person and won’t want to be treated any differently. Do what you usually do – behaving differently can make someone feel more isolated.

Let them share as much as they want to

Let them lead the discussion at their own pace and don’t pressure them to tell you anything they aren’t ready to talk about. Talking can take a lot of trust and courage and you might be the first person they have been able to talk to about this

You don’t have to have all the answers

Try not to make assumptions about what is wrong or jump in too quickly with your own diagnosis or solutions. The important thing is to listen rather than feeling like you need to fix anything,as this isn’t always realistic and it can be more helpful to the other person if you just listen and offer your support, unless they’ve asked for advice directly.

Get help

If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, you are not alone, and there are places you can go to get help.

Get Support

Icebreakers

Below are some suggestions that you can use as ice-breakers in work meetings, or with friends and family to gently open up the conversation around mental health

Stretching

Lead a group stretch before you tuck into your cake, to help everyone feel calmer and boost serotonin levels.

Describe how you feel today using a colour

Colours help us express our feelings when we might not have the right words.

Share nice feedback

Take a moment to write down something you admire abouta friend or a colleague and share this with them It’ll be guaranteed to make their day.

How are you feeling on a scale of 1–10?

With 1 being very low and 10 being fantastic, this is a good honesty exercise, and can help you reflect on what might be going on, especially if you’re feeling a little out of sync.

Breathing exercises

The NHS recommends the following breathing exercise for stress, anxiety and panic – it take just a few minutes and can be done anywhere.

Breathe in through your nose and count steadily from 1 to 5.
Breathe out through your nose, counting from 1 to 5 again
Repeat for 5 minutes.

If this is your first time doing this exercise, you may not be able to get to 5 straight away, so just count up to whichever number is comfortable for you

Use an emoji to describe how you feel right now?

Again, this is a good way to express emotions without using words.

You could even create a mood wall with different emojis and ask people to put their name against the emoticon that best displays their current state or mood.

Resources

Mental Health First Aiders

Find a Mental Health First Aider

Mental Health Resources

View the resources.

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Staff Wellbeing Hub

Contact the hub.

Suicide Awareness Training (free)

Take the training

Search OurSpace