Issue 37 - December 2020
World Mental Health Day
Earlier this year on 10th October our colleagues from the UK joined the NGO Mind (UK´s charity partner for the 2019-2021 period) for the World Mental Health celebrations, which included a number of activities organized to raise awareness, connecting with colleagues and raising funds. Under the 'Do One Thing' theme, to boost wellbeing or the mental health of others, Mind invited everyone to take on a new and simple activity as a first step to improve mental healthcare. Whether it was going for a walk, learning a new skill or doing something creative, the objective was taking the first steps towards getting support for yourself, or reaching out to someone else.
The charity made some useful resources available on their website – including calendars with suggested activities and a number of templates to be used on social media – which our colleagues from the London Heathrow T5 main store – and teams in other airports and terminals across the UK – used to get involved in the celebration. These served to start conversations with each other and to highlight the selected tips for keeping well.
Many of these were later shared with the rest of the UK business – the photos in this article show the team proudly getting involved in raising awareness on this very important day.
Prioritizing mental health on a challenging year
According to research conducted by Mind with over 16,000 responses across the UK, the uncertainty created around the pandemic has negatively affected mental health, and more than half of adults (60%) and over two thirds of young people (68%) said their mental health got worse during lockdown. That made 2020´s Mental Health Day a particularly special one to raise awareness around mental diseases and to help highlight that these can be as common as other more “visible” illnesses.
Being aware of the issue is the first step towards reaching a solution. And whilst taking a first step can be hard – and probably most of us won´t know where to start – campaigns like this one, backed by our UK colleagues, help many to take the first steps towards improving their mental wellbeing and supporting those around them.
