Today is Tuesday 10th October. It is also World Mental Health Day. This years’ theme is ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’ – something that is so important to me that a large part of my consultancy work addresses this. Normally I would be spending the day at Bolton at Home, a forward thinking social housing provider, which cares about the wellbeing of its staff. I am there every Tuesday and every other Thursday providing ‘the Listening Service‘ – a safe space for people to offload and to access my help and support. I also offer Mindfulness workshops to organisations. These are a proactive method of preventing mental health issues arising or equipping people to address existing issues. On Thursday I will be leading a half hour workshop which I call ‘Midday Mindfulness & Meditation’ – it has proved really popular. If you want to know more about the services I offer please take a look at my website and, if you want to know more about World Mental Health day, there is some helpful information on the World Health Organisation site. http://www.who.int/mental_health/in_the_workplace/en/
However, today is also ‘World Homeless day’ and, this Tuesday, I will be at the AGM of Bolton Young Person’s Housing Scheme. As a guardian of the charity, I want to be there to offer my support and to recognise the successes of the young people and staff, at this amazing project, during this past year. If you want to support a really worthwhile charity, combating homelessness, I urge you to get in touch http://www.byphs.org.uk and, if you want to know more about World Homeless day take a look http://www.worldhomelessday.orgThese two issues are so massive I would like to see them have a day each. That said, there is often a direct link between the two. Somebody suffering mental health issues runs the risk of becoming unemployed and then, sadly, sometimes homelessness follows; and the vast majority of homeless people develop mental health issues.
And, in your workplaces or out on the streets … Be kinder than necessary to everyone you meet because everyone is fighting some kind of battle.