The first day of suicide prevention awareness week was a busy day for Mind Your Head.
Monday 7th September saw us launch the #SPAW 15 social media campaign with a number of posts shared during the day. With posts ranging from sharing photographs to sharing posts with information on suicide prevention there was an average of 1,200 and 10 likes per post. The most popular post shared words from Zelda Williams, daughter of the late Robin Williams. Her post shared a beautiful picture with words in memory of her father - "Because I promise you, there are enough nights under the same yellow moon for all of us to share, no matter how or when you find your way there"
The truck this year has again been support by Jims Garage (Toyota) and is pictured here when we took a short break on our tour of the Westside. In total yesterday we visited 3 garages and had 5 direct conversations with men about our campaign this year - "There is no shame in saying I'm not fine" and it's okay to ask for help. We left a bag with supporting information on mental health and wellbeing as well as the information that we will distribute as part of our Grubby Hut initiative.
One man that we spoke to yesterday felt it was good that we were 'taking the horse to the water' and another said that the lass in the office 'hears it all'.
We also visited several of the shops that we went to last year to see if the campaign had made a difference. One shopkeeper said "We've learned a lot. We now speak to customers differently. You can tell sometimes when you look people in the eye and they say I'm fine when they're not."
On Tuesday 8th September we will be focussing the campaign in the south end of Shetland and promoting posts on social media on depression related topics.
