Mind Your Head joined forces with 6 local groups to mark the start of Mental Health Awareness Week. This was the second signing of its kind. The first being back in June when the Shetland Football Association and all 10 local teams signed the Mind Your Head Promise.
The Mind Your Head Promise is a commitment made by the groups/associations or volunatary sector servcices to publicly support Mind Your Head but more importantly to support each other. It is a promise to help tackle the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with mental health problems and to work together to achieve the vision Mind Your Head have created for Shetland.
The vision was created earlier this year and gives the charity as well as the whole community an objective to work towards.
We want Shetland to be a place where:
- Mental health is supported positively within the community
- Information and knowledge of support services is easily accessible
- People do not feel isolated because of mental illness
- Negative attitudes are replaced with understanding and acceptance
The Moving on Employment Project, Zetland Motorcycle Club, The Shetland Ladies Netball Association, The Shetland Rugby Club, Northern Focus Parkour and the Shetland Ladies Hockey association all attended the event held at the Clickimin Leisure Complex to mark the signing of the Promise and to receive information and guides on how they can keep their promises.
Mind Your Head Coordinator, Jenny Teale, spoke of how pleased she was at the turnout: “Mind Your Head are delighted that so many of the groups turned out for the promise event. I see this as only the beginning of our journey with these groups and I hope that we can strengthen our relationships with them so we can all work together to achieve our vision for Shetland. The promise gives us the opportunity to get people talking about their own mental health and let them have the chance to feel accepted and comfortable in doing so’.
Mind Your Head are delighted to be the receiving funding from the sale of Ivan’s Hawicks Dooms Day calendar which is now available to buy at a number of local shops. The money will be used to develop and deliver community training in priority areas identified from a survey we undertook last year. Course topics will include Stigma and its impact, How to help friends and family, mental health wellbeing and relaxation techniques. These courses will be developed in full consultation with professionals and would specifically be designed to complement existing courses without duplicating provision. It is hoped that these courses will be delivered throughout the community as well as for teams and local voluntary groups who have signed the Mind Your Head Promise.
If your group or club would like to take part in the next Promise signing event contact [email protected] or call us on 01595 745035.
