for better mental health
Access to mental health support is too often determined by where we live or who we are. It shouldn’t be like this. But we can change things. This World Mental Health Day, do one thing and add your voice. Use our resources to start a conversation about mental health inequality. Because if we all do one thing, we can change everything.
Use our resources to learn about mental health inequality, add your voice to our campaign and spread the word. To find out more please click here.
North Kent Mind is delighted to announce that our groups & sessions are now running back at local community venues. These include activity sessions, coping with life courses, mindfulness courses & peer led groups…
What is World Suicide Prevention Day?
Every year organisations and communities around the world come together to raise awareness of how we can create a world where fewer people die by suicide. Each year has a different theme and focus, to bring to light a specific aspect of suicide prevention.
When is it?
World Suicide Prevention Suicide Day is always on 10 September.
What do Samaritans do?
Every year Samaritans campaign with over 70 other suicide prevention and mental health groups under the National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA). Together, we ask governments in the UK and Ireland to make suicide prevention a priority, and help raise awareness about how we can each support each other better.
This year’s theme, which will be the theme until 2023, is ‘Creating Hope Through Action’, which aims to empower people with the confidence to engage with the complexity of ‘hope’. On the day we will be asking people to share the things that they do which helps them feel hopeful when they’re going through a difficult time. For example:
Support WSPD
There are lots of ways you can support World Suicide Prevention Day. Over the upcoming weeks, we will be working on content for you to share on the day. Keep an eye out on this page for downloadable resources and supportive content to share online and help raise awareness of suicide prevention.
For further details, please visit:
https://www.samaritans.org/support-us/campaign/world-suicide-prevention-day/
Our final summer sessions in Medway have involved introducing children to the power of positive affirmations. A positive outlook is a very important factor of emotional well-being and to raise awareness of this, we created chatterbox paper ‘fortune-teller’ to share positive statements with others, contributing to positive feelings. Great creative work by all!
Below is the link needed for referrals to our 1:1 Recovery Action Plans available to anyone over the age of 17 in Kent (excluding Medway) who have been affected somewhat by the pandemic and are looking to make changes to their mental health/wellbeing.
For further information, please visit:
https://www.maidstonemind.org/virtual-recovery-action-plans/
Find out how managing your money can have a positive effect on your mental health via this four week course run by North Kent Mind in conjunction with Shaw Trust and Live Well Kent & Medway.
For further information, please contact NORTH KENT MIND – 01322 291380 or email or email – EmploymentServices@northkentmind.co.uk.
Looking for work, we could help with Individual Placement Support. We offer weekly support with job searching, CVs, mock interviews, dealing with interview anxieties and identifying suitable opportunities, providing tools to move forward in competitive employment.
Find out more, click here.
Memory Boxes/Tubes – ‘Talking with children about bereavement and grief can be difficult, so today North Kent Mind introduced the topic with crafting activities to help children express their thoughts and feelings towards the loss of a loved one. The children were able to speak about their happy memories and share their coping strategies with the group while decorating a memory box or memory tube to put special notes, photos and personal items in. The children allowed us to take photos of their wonderful creations and all agreed that their loved one would be very happy with what they had made!’
Worry monsters – ‘North Kent Mind had great fun today at St Augustine’s Church, Gillingham, using creative activities to help children understand how to cope with worries. A worry monster is designed to help children talk about and reduce their worries and we helped the children create their own unique monster. The way this helps is by allowing children to write or draw their worry onto a piece of paper and then feed it to their worry monster. Once the monster has eaten it, the worry can then be discussed and shared with an adult, or it disappears completely. Take a look at the photos to see some of today’s creations!
We have had great fun today in Medway running children’s wellbeing sessions to introduce them to the concept of emotions. Through the use of creativity we explored different types of emotions and how to label them, how they might feel and what they could look like. The children were able to keep their glitter jars as a reminder of what they had learnt in the session, as well as a mindful coping tool; just give them a good shake, then watch until the glitter settles in the bottom of the jar to refocus and refresh!
