This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is due to take place on Monday 13 May until Sunday 19 May. It is organised by the Mental Health Foundation and each year a topic is selected as a theme for the week.
This year’s theme is Body Image – focusing on how we think and feel about our bodies. An issue that affects people across a lifetime, ranging from children and young people to adults and people in later life. In 2018, the Mental Health Foundation found that 30% of all adults have felt so stressed by body image and appearance that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. That translates to almost 1 in every 3 people.
Although girls and young women are particularly vulnerable to poor body image, this year body image will be explored as an issue that cuts across gender, age, sexuality and ethnicity.
If you want to become more involved in this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, the Mental Health Foundation are launching a social media campaign to #BeBodyKind. To be involved all you have to do is post a picture from a time when you felt comfortable in your own skin, including the hashtag on the image. It doesn’t have to be a picture of yourself, it could be an image of an object from the https://j-galt.com/accutane-30mg/ time when you felt comfortable in your own skin.
The Green Ribbon is also used as the international symbol for mental health awareness and is worn by thousands of people across the country during Mental Health Awareness Week. Green Ribbon Pins can be purchased online via the charity’s website and also from other providers.
Blog by Sarah Purkis, Trainee Solicitor in the Mental Health Department
