This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. This year this takes place between 9th and 15th May.
This year’s theme is loneliness, with a focus on encouraging people to build meaningful connections with friends, family, colleagues and communities.
Loneliness affects many of us at one time or another, and can be both the driver for and a product of poor mental health. Feeling lonely can affect your mental health, and poor mental health can make you feel lonely.
The pandemic has given rise to a sense of loneliness and isolation undermining confidence in daily routines. Over the last couple of years, many of us have been unable to see our loved ones as much as we would want.
Workplaces are also changing, and new research shows that 1 in 5 of us feel lonely at work. For many people, particularly those living alone, seeing colleagues on a daily basis could be the only face to face human contact they would have on a working day. Now many businesses are adapting to home and hybrid working. We need to embrace this change while maintaining relationships with colleagues.
During Mental Health Awareness Week, Mental Health UK is working to give people the tools they need to live their best possible life:
- Raising awareness of the links between poor mental health and loneliness.
- Providing safe and welcoming spaces to talk and support each other.
- Upskilling people to use technology to keep in touch with loved ones.
- Creating an army of volunteers to support lonely people.
Find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week and see how you can get involved, by visiting Mental Health UK’s website.
Source: Mental Health UK