At our board meeting last week we were discussing some of the recent coverage on the BBC. Programmes such as 'Don't Call Me Crazy', 'My Dad and Me' and "Extreme OCD Camp" were highlighted as they provided a really valuable perspective into living with mental ill health. The power of these programmes to tackle the stigma of mental health by simply improving our understanding is not to be underestimated.
For the team here at Mind Your Head, it is a reminder of the importance of raising awareness in ways which are accessible throughout the community. There are various ways we do this at the moment - events such as our Fun Run, information stalls at community events, leaflet distribution and projects to coincide with national campaigns such as Suicide Prevention Week. We will be at the Shetland Strongman event in Clickimin on 17th August, where we will have a display including information on what we do as well information on mental health and wellbeing. The boys who organise the Strongman event are really supportive and we're really grateful for the opportunity to again raise awareness at their event.
We also deliver educational sessions in schools which raise awareness of specific areas such as cyberbullying, self-harm, exam stress, etc. Earlier this year we launched a pilot community training scheme which will be delivered throughout the community in early 2014. This provides an opportunity for us to supplement excellent courses already available locally (such as the applied suicide intervention training) with smaller Shetland focussed sessions on topics such as local support services available, stigma, the internet and emotional wellbeing plus much more. If you would like to find out more or to be added to a mailing list to be kept informed please contact us.
Over the next few months we are going to be delivering several exciting initiatives. We will be launching a men's mental health campaign which will hopefully be followed up with talks in male dominated work industries. We are also launching our own 'Real Life Stories' project which, over the last few months, has seen us recording local people's real life experiences of mental health. Their stories will be shared via the media and online via short films we are hoping to make in September.
And of course our online social networks are a key way in which we raise awareness. Of course you can help us spread these important stories and links by liking our Facebook page and sharing our website posts. Everytime a post gets shared we are successfully reaching out and either promoting mental health positively or providing information and advice on mental health.
Our next update will focus on the final preperations for our annual Fun Run.
