Mental Health Awareness Week- Pointless Trend or Important Tradition?

Written by Will Crawford, founder of quietnote and Future Faces committee member

‘Awareness’ is an interesting word when it comes to the subject of mental health. I think since COVID-19, there has been so much talk about mental health and wellbeing that the idea of raising more awareness for mental health seems to have become a bit redundant.

To me, MHAW is not really about awareness; it’s about figuring out what we can do to create positive change for ourselves personally and professionally. Think about the following cycle:

• Education
• Understanding
• Conversation
• Action
• Change

Over the past few years, we’ve been grounded in education, understanding, and conversation—lots of talk, lots of awareness. This is a great thing because to create change, we first need to properly understand the issues, and with a subject as intricate as mental health, this is going to take time. However, it only works if we get to the action stage!

However, the responsibility is not just with the employee, nor is it solely with the employer. It’s a balance, so I would implore you to think about how you can move into that action phase. This is the only way to get to change, and then the cycle repeats itself and we hopefully start to build in the right direction. Our bodies and minds are constantly changing. Every day we wake up with a different mood or feeling, and every day our experiences change us. There’s no endpoint to this cycle. Like physical fitness or the gym—no one can complete the gym, and no one will ever be in 'perfect' physical health. The cycle repeats, and we work at it each day.

Awareness, on the other hand, comes down to our own internal mental wellbeing practice. It's not just an outward conversation; it's also an internal action. What are you doing to boost your awareness of your thought patterns, emotions, feelings, and mental habits?

Here are a couple of thoughts to help instigate a bit of action towards building stronger mental wellbeing:

• Start small. Small changes, practiced regularly, create healthy habits. The more healthy habits we start to develop, the stronger and more resilient our mental health will become.
• Draw a picture of your ideal wellbeing goals and work backwards from it. It’s much easier to start making positive changes if you have a road map.
• Reach out if you need support or a bit of friendly guidance. Our Future Faces wellbeing team is always on hand to offer some guidance or point you in the direction of the help you might need.

Have a wonderful MHAW 2024 and let us know what you’re doing this week to raise awareness and make some changes.

What do you think as well: Mental Health Awareness Week—pointless trend or important tradition?

If you are interested in learning more about our wellbeing initiatives or supporting the wellbeing subcommittee you can contact Will via [email protected]

 If you are interested in learning more about Future Faces, please reach out to Future Faces manager Sophie via [email protected].