Those of you who are newer followers may not be aware that I originally began my blog fourteen years ago to share my experience of mental health issues, in the hope that this would offer some encouragement to others going through what I did. That seemed to go well, and despite the more recent focus on music, with a few other odds and sods dropped into the mix, mental  health is still a subject near to my heart. One date that I never miss is 10th October, which is World Mental Health Day (WMHD), as this gives me the opportunity to go back to my blogging roots.

So here we are again: WMHD is this Saturday. It was initiated in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) and is given a theme each year. This year they have chosen “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change” for this, as you can read on the World Health Organisation’s website. As they say, “World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with people with lived experience (PWLE) of mental health conditions and to recognise their knowledge as a vital form of expertise. This year’s campaign calls for their voices to shape the policies, services and decisions that affect their lives. Lived experience is what someone has experienced themselves, especially when it gives the individual knowledge or understanding that people who have only heard or learnt about such experiences do not have.” This should be blindingly obvious, but all too often those PWLE are left out of the decision-making processes about what might and might not be helpful to provide, which seems so tragically wasteful: an opportunity missed.

A little further down their page they give a few statistics to back up the reason for their choice of theme

“Meaningful engagement is still not standard practice.

Of the countries responding to the WHO Mental Health Atlas 2024 survey:

• 37% reported having included PWLE in training delivered to primary health care workers on mental health.
• 45% reported having ongoing collaboration with PWLE and family or caregiver advocacy groups in the planning, delivery or monitoring of mental health promotion, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services.
• 59% reported that mental health legislation had been developed in consultation with PWLE
• 80% of countries with a mental health policy or plan reported that it had been developed in consultation with PWLE.”

Shouldn’t those numbers all be much closer to 100%? I think you can see why they chose this theme!

Here in the UK WMHD is co-ordinated by the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), whose website is a source of much useful information. As they say,

“Talking about mental health can feel hard. Many of us worry about saying the wrong thing, and that can stop conversations before they begin. But these conversations matter.”

I know from personal experience that this is absolutely right. I was off work for more than nine months in 2011/12 with clinical depression and anxiety issues, and shut myself away from people, thinking that the stigma that attached to this would somehow devalue me in the eyes of friends, family and work colleagues. I only really began talking about this when I was invited to meet a counsellor as a step towards going back to work, and the conversations we had, and the thoughts he got me to write down, became the basis for my blog’s beginnings. I know now how shortsighted I was to act that way, but I guess many feel like that too. Those conversations are vitally important, if we can bring ourselves to make the move to open them up.

If you scroll down the MHF page a little you will find this link to a blog post they made on 1 October, about how to help someone by listening to them. It is a very good piece, and  I recommend it if you know someone who may be in need of some help or support. Some people are better listeners than others – that’s entirely natural – but no matter how good or bad at it that you think you are, following their advice will help you improve your skills, and help you to help someone else.

I always like to illustrate these posts if I can with a video or two. A brief introductory one was made by the UN Office of Human Resources, and if you can get past the annoying music it makes its point:

And this one is a much more personal take on why talking and listening are important. It is actually a fundraiser for a branch of MIND, the mental health charity for which I volunteered for six years, but it is spoken from the heart by someone who has been there, done that:

Mental health is important for all of us. We all have it, whether it be good, bad or indifferent. We shouldn’t need reminders to take care of ourselves and others, but days like World Mental Health Day can help us to remember the importance of that. If you are feeling the need to reach out and talk to someone, please try to take that first step: it is hard, I know, but it will feel so much better for you when you do. And if you know someone you think might need some help, just ask them if they are alright, and if they feel ready to talk maybe they will. It isn’t rocket science, after all!

Stay well and take care 🙏