Mental Health Foundation

Today is National Schizophrenia Awareness Day. Schizophrenia is a mental health condition often described as a type of psychosis. This means you might be unable to tell the difference between your thoughts and reality. Symptoms may include: a loss of touch with reality; seeing or hear things that are not there; holding irrational, paranoid or unusual beliefs not based on reality; appearing to act strangely because you’re responding to these delusions and hallucinations. A common misconception is that schizophrenia means having a ‘split personality’. This is not true. Multiple personalities are not a symptom of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is usually treated with a combination of therapy and medication unique to the person. In addition to this, there is self-care and self-help that can help you live well with the condition. For example, planning for difficult times, and understanding the warning signs of an episode. Find out more about schizophrenia and finding support: https://bit.ly/3Pxe6Xh

Connecting with other people is so important for our mental health. There are a lot of different ways we can do this, like phoning a friend for a chat, or visiting a neighbour. Sharing a meal is a great of building connections! It can help us slow down, talk and listen to each other. Since what we eat can also affect our mental health, while you're sharing a meal, why not think about ways to make it healthy for your mind and body! 👉 Find out more: https://bit.ly/3GAWTJM

📣 We're delighted to be recruiting for 3 roles this month, in Cardiff, Glasgow and London. Join our team in Cardiff as a Public Mental Health Officer. A full-time (32 hours) fixed-term role for 12 months. This role will work alongside community partners to identify, test, and embed the best approaches to improving mental health in communities. You will support the development of the evidence base on mental health, and generate compelling evidence of how systems can act to support good mental health. Starting salary £31,350. Join our team in Glasgow as an Office Manager. This is a part-time role for 16 hours per week for a 12-month maternity cover. You'll be responsible for the smooth running of the Glasgow office. Starting salary £15,675. Join our team in London as a HR Administrator. This is a part-time permanent role for 25.6 hours per week. You'll be responsible for supporting our payroll & recruitment processes, along with managing our HR system. Starting salary £20,900 £2,628 London weighting. Please check out these roles & our benefits here: https://lnkd.in/eYQvbWYs

Happy Disability Pride Month! Originally started in the US in 1990, we have celebrated Disability Pride Month in the UK every July since 2015. Disability Pride is about spreading awareness about disabilities and celebrating the diversity of the disabled community. One in five people in the UK live with a disability. The Disability Pride flag uses five different colours to represent the many different identities and types of experience within the disabled community. 🔵Did you know that the blue in the flag represents mental health problems? Some people with a mental health condition will identify as disabled, and some will not. This will be personal to each of us. Some people may also identify as having more than one type of disability. Disability Pride Month will mean something different to everyone. In the face of ableism, stigma and other forms of prejudice and discrimination, Disability Pride feels especially important. What does Disability Pride mean to you?

There's lots we can do to look after our own mental health, but we can't have good mental health for all without a society that prioritises it. That's why we're delighted to be a strategic partner for the Hapus Programme - a National Conversation on Mental Health in Wales. The aim of Hapus is to encourage people to prioritise their wellbeing and make time for the things that can boost mental health, like spending time with family & friends, walking in nature or listening to music. Something we could all do more of. Find out more below.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is one of the most common treatments offered for mental health problems. Evidence suggests it can be used to treat depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia and more. But what is CBT, and what can someone starting this treatment expect from it? 👉It's based on the idea that our feelings, thoughts and actions are all connected. By changing one of these, we can change the others. 👉When we’re upset, we often fall into patterns of negative thinking and responding that can make us feel worse and become a cycle. ✔️In CBT, your therapist will help you notice and change how you think and behave so you can break this cycle and feel better. Find out more about CBT in our guide here: https://bit.ly/4cS6kTe

Helping others can have a positive effect on your mental health. 💜 Acts of kindness don’t have to be big gestures, and they don’t have to cost a lot of time or money. You could: 1/ share positive feedback with a colleague 2/ listen to someone share a problem 3/ help someone with a task they're struggling with. These can all bring positive feelings. Remember to also extend kindness to yourself, too.

Self-harm is when a person hurts themselves on purpose. People might self-harm to cope with difficult or overwhelming thoughts and feelings. Self-harm can affect anyone. It's important to get help if you are self-harming. Talking to someone is often the first step to break the cycle. This could be a trusted friend, family member, your GP, or a helpline. It isn’t easy. But it’s an important step towards recovery and feeling better. Get more advice, information and support through our guide: https://bit.ly/3xQFTyd

Research shows that connecting with nature can boost your mental health.🍃🌊 This can mean getting outdoors and into green spaces, like parks and forests, or blue spaces, like rivers and lakes. You can bring nature indoors, too, with house plants or nature-inspired art. It's also been proven that watching nature documentaries can boost your mental health. This is particularly helpful for those unable to get outdoors. Learn more about nature and mental health: https://bit.ly/3NgC6P6

On Friday, our new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, stood outside Downing Street and said that the urgent work of the new government begins immediately. ❗ There can be few more urgent issues than addressing the mental health of the nation. Everyone deserves good mental health. But not everyone has access to the key building blocks of mental health, including decent housing, financial security, safe childhoods, and freedom from discrimination. Preventing many mental health problems is possible. But we need the government to take action. 📢 That’s why we’re calling on the new Labour government to deliver a detailed, long-term, funded mental health plan. We look forward to working with the new government to make this happen.