Welcome to the start of Mental Health Awareness Week 2021. This nationwide week here in the UK gives us a chance to come together as a country to focus on mental health and put it into the forefront of conversations it might not otherwise be.
mental health awareness week 2021
The theme chosen by the Mental Health Foundation for this week is nature. I’ve talked a lot about nature before, and I can’t wait to dive into it again this week. I’ll be digesting the theme and sharing all the best content from the week as I’ve done in previous years.
If you’re visiting my site for the first time, I’m Jake Symons, and ever since I started my mental health blog at 16, I’ve been passionate about sharing my journey as a way of expressing myself alongside helping you realise you are not alone in what you go through. A big part of that is producing content and getting involved in awareness events just like this one.
The week will follow a similar format to previous years, but now the introductions are out of the way, let’s get right into what’s coming up.
Content Schedule
Tomorrow: I’ll be sharing my own relationship with nature and how it’s helped me.
Wednesday: I’ll be looking through the resources from the Mental Health Foundation and their research as to the benefits of nature in an easy to digest way.
Thursday: I’ll be discussing the need to take action and how you can help
Friday: I’ll provide a roundup of some of the best content from the week in the news and blogs.
Mental Monday
Mental Monday: Mental Health Live! will be live Monday-Friday at 7 PM UK / 6 PM UTC.
This will follow the standard format being unscripted with our standard check-in and conversation based on chat, but many of my own thoughts will be based on the blog of the day.
Social
I’ll be active across Twitter and Instagram to share the content that others have created in the mental health community. Feel free to tag me in anything you want me to share.
Check out #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek and #MHAW to see some of the content that’s produced.
Get Involved
If you have any suggestions on what else I could do during this week, then please leave them in the comments, as I’d love to get involved as much as possible. You can also fill the form at the bottom of this blog if you have produced / read content you think deserves to be in the roundup.
If you’re a mental health content creator, I’ve also shared my tips on how you can get involved yourself, including a look at the Mental Health Foundation’s resources.
But everyone has the opportunity to get involved this week. And that’s simply by going through it actively. Read through content, give things a like or a retweet, ask someone how their day went. While these may sound like small things, your support matters so much both for raising awareness and directly to those you have positive mental health conversations with.
Use the week to reach out
The biggest thing I’d encourage you to this week is not to watch Mental Monday or engage in blogs. It’s actually to look through your phone and reach out to someone.
This could be someone you may know is struggling or not themselves recently, or maybe someone you’ve lost touch with. A message as simple as “It’s been a while mate, just wanted to check in and see if you were ok” can be so beneficial.
And while there will be a lot of amazing content produced for this week, sometimes it’s the small gestures, the listening ear, the simple act of being present with someone in what they’re going through, can make a massive difference.
So now I’ve shared what I’m doing. I want to hand things over to you. How has nature helped your own mental health? I may include a section of your comments on my blog on Friday.