World Mental Health Day in our Town #WMHDSwindon

What's it all about?

Mental Health is something that every single one of us have and different life events could have an impact on our mental health, the same as it might on our physical health. If we all have it, then hopefully we can all understand how important it is to take positive steps to look after it.

October the 10th is World Mental Health day, an international campaign which has been set up by the World Federation for Mental Health. This day gives us all a great opportunity to inspire action and support each other to prioritise looking after our mental health in the busy and sometime chaotic world we live in.

This year we are looking to run a town wide campaign to promote positive messages around mental wellbeing and we want to open this up to all local people to get involved.

How can you get involved?

It’s very simple, we are asking everyone to pledge to do something to promote a positive message around mental health. This could be as simple as going for a walk, meeting a friend for a coffee and a chat or something larger like running a mental health awareness event at your place of work.

You can do this activity on your own, with colleagues, friends or family, but we want a town wide approach and we would love you to be as creative as possible.

We are encouraging everyone to wear something green to promote positive mental health, is this something you can do on Oct 10th?

What kind of things can I pledge? We like to encourage people to think about the Five Ways To Wellbeing (connect, Be Active, Learn, Give and Take Notice), which is developed by the New Economics Foundation, so here are a few suggestion, buts its really up to you.

Connect - Connect to people around you, it can give you a sense of belonging. 

• Meet up with a friend.
• Play a game with a family member. 
• Go and see a neighbour.
• Call someone to reconnect with. them.

Be Active - Looking after your physical health will help look after your mental health.

• Go for a lunch time stroll.
• Bike ride with the family.
• Walk up the stairs if you don’t need to take the lift.
• Do some seated exercises.
• Better Swindon will be having an open day on 10th October where you can use the gym, pools and classes.

Give - Helping others can give you a real sense of purpose.

• Give a colleague a hand to complete a task.
• Give a friend your ear and listen and support them.
• Give your neighbour your time and help them out.
• Sign up as a volunteer in your community.

Take Notice - Live in the moment and take some time out to relax.

• Give a colleague a hand to complete a task.
• Give a friend your ear and listen and support them.
• Give your neighbour your time and help them out. 

Learn - This can boost your confidence and sense of achievement, plus it can be fun.

• Why not set up a micro teach day at work?
• Give a new activity a go.
• Read up on a new topic.
• Sign up to a course in your community. 

Ok sounds great, what do I do next?

• Pick an activity to do on the 10th Oct 2018.
• Make your pledge by completing 3 simple questions on this link
• Take a photo of you carrying out the pledge
• Why not share it on social media?
• Why not #WMHDSwindon
• Wear something green if you have it (green is the mental health awareness colour).