Mental Health Awareness

Helping to Remove the Stigma of Mental Ill-Health

Helping to Promote Good Mental Health

Useful Links

Details of Seminar

Information about Mental Illnesses

Course Outline Leaflet

HELPING TO REMOVE THE STIGMA OF MENTAL ILL-HEALTH

Many people know someone (possibly unknowingly) who has a mental health difficulty.

Estimates vary, but 1 in 10 children between the ages of 1 and 15 has a mental health disorder and research suggests that 20% of children have a mental health problem in any given year. (Source: Mental Health Foundation 2005 & Office of National Statistics (ONS))

Similarly rates of mental health problems among children increase as they reach adolescence. In the age range 11-15, disorders affect 12.8% of boys and 9.65% of girls.  (Source: ONS)

Amongst adults, 1 in 4 British adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health difficulty in any one year, and 1 in 6 at any one time (mostly mixed anxiety and depression). (Source: ONS)

Most people are able to live in the community; only the chronic or very acutely unwell require residential care or inpatient treatment.

Removing the stigma of mental ill-heath means that people are more accepted and able to live productive lives.

CHALLENGING IDEAS AND PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS

Who do you see in this picture? -

Do you see a young woman looking into the distance or an old woman looking to the left?

We tend to formulate our opinions of the world around us from an early age. The issue for most people is that they have very little understanding of what mental ill-health is, often relying on stereotypes they have learnt from their family, friends or the media. 

The course can be tailored to suit individual people’s circumstances but in principle:

The first half of the course starts off by looking at the preconceived ideas or issues people may have.

This is followed by understanding how we communicate with basic role-play, listening skills and looking at how society uses labels to ‘pigeon-hole’ people into particular stereotypes. 

HELPING TO PROMOTE GOOD MENTAL HEALTH

Understanding Mental Health, not a list of diagnoses.

Unless someone is training to be a mental health practitioner, a list of diagnoses and treatments for different mental illnesses is largely irrelevant.

Our approach is to help people expand their knowledge of mental health by looking  at how our personalities develop.

People with mental ill-health share the same hopes, aspirations and fears as everyone else but tend to express them in ways that limit their ability to cope with living in society.

The second half of the course can include various role-plays which help people explore their own attitudes to scenarios that they may face. It also can look at basic psychological models to understand what kind of things shape our thinking.

The length of course can be adapted to fit into a 50-60 minute lesson for teenagers or 2—3 hours for adults wanting to explore to a greater depth.

CROSSWAYS COMMUNITY OUR VISION

CROSSWAYS COMMUNITY is dedicated to reaching out to the community and spreading awareness about mental ill-health. To many of us, mental illness can sound frightening or intimidating. And when we don’t understand something, we tend to shy away from it or make judgements based on preconceptions rather than first-hand experiences.

That’s why, as part of its mental health awareness programme, Crossways decided to produce this course. We wanted to explain a bit more about basic mental health and how to relate to other people (including those without mental ill-health)