Today – 10th October 2018 is World Mental Health Day #wmhd
World Mental Health Day is a day created for mental health education, awareness and to rid of the social stigma associated. The day was observed for the first time on 10th October 1992 and started as an annual activity of the World Federation for Mental Health by the then Deputy Secretary-General Richard Hunter.
1 in 4 of us in the UK experience a mental health problem in any given year, so, the chances are we all know someone affected by mental illness. Our mental health affects us every day and so, affects us at work. This WMHD (today) be the person to get everyone talking about mental health, forward this blog, a photo of our RETHINK jersey, anything…. just be the person to start talking.
Below we have come up with 10 ways to help awareness:
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Talk about it. Ask people how they’re doing, mean it and listen. Such a simple and genuine question could actually have a larger impact than you think. Always be ready to listen and encourage. Do not leave children out of this.
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Share your story. If you’ve personally struggled or are currently struggling from mental illness then speak up, share your story, your feelings, your thoughts with family and friends because it’s good to talk and you may encourage others to do so too.
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Learn about it. Learn about mental health illness and encourage others as well. Buy a book or download an article and once you’re finished with it pass it on to a friend, or colleague, or leave it in the office for others to see.
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Encourage correct speak about mental illness.
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Help with campaigns. Rethink are very good at creating campaigns and content that can be shared easily. Share one of these campaigns via your own social media channels to help charities reach potentially new people. The more people that like, comment and share, the more awareness. And every effort helps. Check rethink.org to see their latest campaigns and find out how you can help.
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Organise a work/ club, team meeting, it doesn’t need to be anything ‘over the top’ as long as people see that you’re trying, that’s all that matters.
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Volunteer at local mental health organisations.
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Be supportive. Support those around you, family/friends/colleagues. Sometimes people that suffer, suffer alone, they keep it hidden until the struggle becomes noticeable. It shouldn’t be that way. The more we talk about it, the more people will feel free to talk about it.
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Watch out for bullying. Bullying comes in all forms now thanks to the internet, and cyberbullying can be just as bad as physical bullying. It can lead to depression and anxiety.
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Eat healthily and exercise regularly. It’s a known fact that healthy eating and regular exercise can have a massive, positive impact on mental health. Show everyone the way and hopefully, they’ll follow in your footsteps.
Please try to do at least one of these things today!
RETHINK X SG collab jersey
Back in August, we launched our AW18 collection and many are calling it our best collection yet! Within the new range we launched something very special… a collab jersey… between ourselves and Rethink (a mental health charity).
We partnered with Rethink.org a year ago and in that time we’ve helped with many of their campaigns (Bright Blue Monday, Time To Talk Day, World Bipolar Day, World Mental Health Day 2017) but we thought we could go that extra mile. And thus, we created our Rethink jersey.
The Rethink jersey design is simple, elegant and stylish! The design features multiple ‘+’ symbols all over, to represent positivity and Blue in colour, of course, to match the Rethink branding. Black side panels match perfectly with black cycling shorts and Rethink and SG goats’ head logos on either sleeve make the finishing touches.
The reason behind the Rethink x SG collab jersey.
– We wanted to raise awareness for Rethink and mental health in general. By producing a collab jersey we have created an art piece that can and has been shared/ talked about on many platforms. @kitgrid on Instagram shared our Rethink jersey yesterday hopefully, it has encouraged talk and awareness.
– We wanted to raise money for Rethink. Charity expenses can’t be paid with hopes and dreams. They, like any other business, need money to keep the lights on! Every donation helps! We are donating £10 from every rethink jersey sale to the charity! See the mens jersey here and the womens here.
– We wanted to inspire other companies to do charity collabs too. The more awareness (no matter the cause) can only be a good thing!
– We wanted to show (to those who struggle in particular) that we are trying to encourage change! It’s ok to not be ok.
Download a guide below
Download Rethink’s new guide for family and friends on how to help someone who has a mental health problem.