World Mental Health Day
8th October 2024
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.
Mental Health at work
Supporting your staff and colleagues in their day to day work can have a massive impact on their mental health. Here are some of the things we do at Community Action Bradford and District to support our staff:
- training mental health first aiders and line managers to talk about mental health with employees
- supporting mental health days for employees
- facilitating a good work/life balance to prevent burnout
Find more resources here – www.mentalhealth.org.uk
Mental Health at home
Day to day stresses can have a massive impact on our mental health, so doing little things can often make a big impact.
Things to try to do everyday:
- Get closer to nature
- Get more from your sleep
- Keep Moving
- Eat Healthy food
- Talk to someone you trust
Financial stress can be hard to deal with. The rising cost of everything, from groceries to utilities, is making it difficult to make ends
meet. This is being referred to as a ‘Cost of Living Crisis’.
This does not mean that you have to be in crisis to be struggling, and it is affecting all of us, not just the lowest earners.
Take a look at the Cost of Living support we’ve put together, there might be something here that helps you get through it – and
keep checking back, we’ll be adding new content regularly https://costoflivingbradford.co.uk/
Finding support
Talking about your mental health can seem daunting, think about these three things to help you feel more prepared:
Choose someone you trust to talk to
This might be a friend, family member or a colleague. Or you might be more comfortable talking to someone you don’t know, for example, through a support helpline. It can help to do a pros and cons list about talking to someone.
Think about the best place to talk
It’s important to choose a place where you feel comfortable enough to open-up. You might want to choose somewhere private where you’re less likely to be disturbed. You also might want to talk while you do an activity, like walking together.
Prepare yourself for their reaction
Hopefully, you will have a good experience when you open-up to someone. But there’s a chance that they may not react in the way you hope. This may be for different reasons, like they may be worried or not fully understand at first. If that’s the case, try to give them time to process what you’ve told them. It might help to give them information to read to help them understand. And don’t forget to be kind to yourself and practise self-care.
It’s not easy to ask for help though and if you find yourself needing to talk to someone, and not sure where to turn, there are a number of great services out there that can help:
- The Healthy Minds Website: (for a local directory of services) https://www.healthyminds.services/
- Samaritans: Samaritans 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: Call 116 123 (free from any phone) Call the Samaritans Welsh Language Line on 0808 164 0123 (7pm–11pm every day) Email jo@samaritans.org
- Shout: If you would prefer not to talk but want some mental health support, you could text SHOUT to 85258. Shout offers a confidential 24/7 text service providing support if you are in crisis and need immediate help.
- Papyrus HOPELINEUK: If you’re under 35 and struggling with suicidal feelings, or concerned about a young person who might be struggling, you can call Papyrus HOPELINEUK on 0800 068 4141 (24 hours, 7 days a week), email pat@papyrus-uk.org or text 07786 209 697.
- Nightline: If you’re a student, you can look on the Nightline website to see if your university or college offers a night-time listening service. Nightline phone operators are all students too.
- Switchboard: If you identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, you can call Switchboard on 0300 330 0630 (10am–10pm every day), email chris@switchboard.lgbt or use their webchat service. Phone operators all identify as LGBT+
There are many more resources and links to other helplines on the Mind website: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/seeking-help-for-a-mental-health-problem/mental-health-helplines/
Call First Response if you are experiencing a mental health crisis. This service offers support 24 hours a day, seven days a week to people of all ages living in Bradford, Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven. Call 0800 952 1181.
When a First Response telephone assessment indicates the need for a face-to-face assessment, this service will aim to see you within 4 hours.
Always call 999 in an emergency, or when somebody is at risk of serious harm.