This coming week is Mental Health Awareness Week, one of the opportunities through the year to highlight the importance of mental health and wellbeing in our conversations.
The Mental Health Foundation say:
Being part of a safe, positive community is vital for our mental health and wellbeing. We thrive when we have strong connections with other people and supportive communities that remind us, we are not alone. Communities can provide a sense of belonging, safety, support in hard times, and give us a sense purpose.
Here at Space to Breathe we know that community is vitally important and is a central part of what we do. For example …
We’ve created a men’s mental health community around our weekly Space to Breathe drop in. Find out more here.
We support the provision of mental health support in local communities, with our Peer Support Workers in Porter Valley and Townships 1 in Sheffield.
We’ve worked with the Firs and Bromford estate to provide wellbeing support in the midst of community activities.
In our recent work with South Yorkshire Housing Association and their Positive Activities programme, the project commended the depth of community that we had created and it’s something we value highly.
2025 for 25% campaign
This Mental Health Awareness week we want to highlight our 2025 for 25% campaign where we are aiming to find 500 people to donate £20 to help people otherwise excluded from mental health care. This is a key community issue as we know (as an oppositie the positives listed above) that isolation is incredibly destructive for our wellbeing.
Sometimes for reasons of culture, language, lifestyle or through the isolation that can happen when our mental health crashes, people can get excluded from care. We are working hard to do something about this and to bring people back into community and into relationships:
People like Darren who had gradually retreated into his house and felt scared to go outside. We worked one to one with him, helping him build a toolkit of approaches to reduce the sense of stress he felt in the outside world. Now Darren attends regular groups and shares his lived experiences to help others struggling with their mental health.
What was striking about Darren’s story is that he was unable to find help within the Mental Health system. Darren faced what was described as “multiple disadvantage” and his life was too chaotic to fit with the care systems he was offered. When Darren came to us it was because he was being discharged from any further care.
We want to help people like Darren to find mental health solutions that are based around his life and his needs. This is something a small organisation like Space to Breathe can do, but we need your help to do this.
Would you consider giving to our campaign? Find out more or donate directly using the buttons below. We are encouraging everyone to give £20 but you can give less or more, whichever works for you.
We really need your help.
Mental health awareness week
We’ll be back all week with ideas and resources to help you engage with this years Mental Health Awareness week. Keep checking back here or watch our social media for more.