World Mental Health Day, on 10 October,
is a day for us to unite in our efforts to improve the mental health of people around the world. As a club, we have had a theme of promoting mental wellbeing this year through our speakers, charities and communications – it is an issue dear to our hearts. This also supports the Soroptimists International Great Britain and Northern Ireland (SIGBI) Federation theme – our Federation President Sue Williams said
“At the beginning of the Soroptimist year, I asked you to ‘Think On It.’ I asked you to join with me to raise awareness of our own wellbeing. I asked that we talked about mental health and the importance of advocating for the good mental health for others by speaking out and raising awareness. By doing so, we are educating, enabling and empowering ourselves and others. And you did so in many, many ways! Thank you”.
We haven’t finished our work on this yet, but today gives us pause for thought.
The theme selected for this year’s Day is suicide prevention. We are encouraging you to prepare to take “40 seconds of action” on 10 October to help us: improve awareness of the significance of suicide as a global public health problem; improve knowledge of what can be done to prevent suicide; reduce the stigma associated with suicide; and let people who are struggling know that they are not alone. Put simply, this is an opportunity to show you care. Everyone can take part in whichever way makes most sense. Your activity may be private, for example, initiating a conversation with someone you are worried about or sharing a message of hope with someone who is struggling; or it may be public, for example posting a video message for local or national authorities about action you would like them to take on this issue. If you want more information about this, click on this link: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/mental-health/suicide/flyer-40seconds-web.pdf?sfvrsn=5ba643c_2
We are also delighted to be making a contribution to the Mental Health Conference organised by local mum’s charity Motherwell.
Kate Blakemore, CEO of Motherwell says
“Since doing the topic of “Let’s Talk More” on my radio show, it made me realise how important it is to talk about such issues, so I decided to bring everyone together and open the topic up.”
Our Club President, Helen Piddock-Jones is talking about the how women experience mental health issues, and why it is such an issue for us to tackle. She is also stressing the need for us to care for ourselves as well as look out for others
One of the issues we are supporting locally is to make Nantwich a dementia friendly town, recognising that dementia affects more women than men, and many carers are also women. Dementia is a devastating condition, robbing people of their personalities and abilities but we know that people with dementia can still lead a good life, and we are committed to supporting this. Watch out for more on this as we work with the group to Turn the Town Blue next May!