Mental health issues are a difficult discussion. UK has come to normalize the importance of mental health.
Exams, stressful living situations, big life decisions, and long, dormant summers – university really bubbles away all these to cause a perfect storm of panic attacks, long periods of anxiety, many emotional heatwaves and a downpour of accompanying physical symptoms.
Mental health has always been something people didn’t take seriously throughout the years. But in the last five years, UK has come a long way to implement better mental healthcare in its school, colleges, and workspaces.
There are many campaigns now to help youngsters and adults alike. One such organization in Cardiff is Samaritans Cymru. They are a helpline service available 24/7 and their motto is to create a safe space in schools, colleges, and offices.
“We support schools, college communities and other youth settings across the UK and Republic of Ireland by free online teaching resources talks given by our volunteers and support for schools and colleges in the planning and implementation of a postvention response,” says Emma Gooding.
According to the UK government, one in four university students face mental health issues. April 2019 in Wales, the National Assembly announced that it will be allocating £2 million to mental health services for students.
“I hope that universities will be able to use this funding to improve the support and services they offer students, such as bilingual and online support,”
says Gwyneth Sweatman, NUS Wales President.
“It’s also important that students are able to access support and services across different campuses,” she adds.
Recognition of and action on the impact of mental ill health in the workplace has, without doubt, progressed in recent years. An important aspect of any employer’s strategy is a positive approach to promote and maintain good employee mental health and to prevent problems arising.
Many businesses now use workplace wellbeing programs, spearheaded by those at the top of the organization, to ensure openness and transparency around mental health, to provide training and assistance for managers, and to provide tools for both prevention and intervention for use by the business. These initiatives are overwhelmingly successful.
Even though it is a terrifying thing to pick up courage and go talk about your issues to a counsellor or even a friend, people here in the UK have come a long way in the past few years. People take things like anxiety and depression more seriously and take therapy sessions and even required steps to overcome it.
“My first experience with anxiety was at the age of 17. I didn’t know what was happening. My heart used to pound in my ears and I used to sweat and panic. My fat diary was the only thing that distracted my anxiety”
Says Ara Mohi, undergraduate student at UAL
One of the many side effects of mental health illness is taking extreme steps like suicides. Every year, thousands lose their life to suicide and many organizations are working together for suicide prevention.
PAPYRUS was founded in 1997 by a group of bereaved parents who had lost a child to suicide with the goal that no one else would have to go through the death of a loved one without support, and eventually that no one would have to deal with the suicide of a loved one.
“Our goal is to provide people with the skills and knowledge to help support people going through a suicide crisis.”
says Alicia Ewington – Suicide Prevention Advisor, PAPYRUS
They offer support and counselling to those contemplating suicide, and also support for those who have lost someone to suicide.
Mental health is something that doesn’t just affect a person for a particular age group. But people usually tend to ignore that even a child at the age of six will be able to fell anxiety and depression. Mental Health illnesses in children have become quite common nowadays.
Counsellors in schools have become mandatory and they mostly deal with bullying and self-confidence issues that children face in school.
Even museums, like the Swansea’s National Waterfront Museum, has made a chill sensory room with calming fairy lights, comfortable cushion chairs, and a lava lamp.
“People can come here and relax whenever they want. It usually helps the people working here and even some guests to deal with their day-to-day stress.”
says Zoe Gealy, Senior Learning Officer at National Waterfront Museum.
The sensory room at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea. ©National Museum Wales 2017
According to the Mental Health Foundation, people have difficulties talking about their mental health because their problems are made worse by the stigma and discrimination they experience from society, but also from families, friends, and employers. Nearly nine out of ten people with mental health problems say that stigma and discrimination have a negative effect on their lives.
The Welsh Assembly has announced it will begin planning a new strategy for tackling mental health in schools, looking at measures such as early intervention for students and a change of curriculum.
England has already made a similar move and are including mental wellbeing as a part of the curriculum from September 2019 onwards. Both cases are a step in the right direction, especially considering it is the Mental Health Awareness is an important subject.
Even though the UK has come so far in leaving behind the taboo with mental health, it still has a long way to go. Statistics suggest that stress at work remains a growing problem. According to the TUC, in 2017/18 in the UK 15.4 million working days were lost to stress, depression or anxiety, accounting for 57% of all absences. Meanwhile, the Stevenson/Farmer Thriving at Work Review reported that poor mental health costs UK employers between £33 billion and £42 billion a year.
Using a proactive approach aimed at support and prevention is important for employers to ensure that the organization’s culture does not shift so far that managers feel unable to deal with situations where mental ill-health is at play.
Let’s talk to our family and loved ones and de-stigmatize issues around Mental Health
In the long term, the practices that are now being practiced have helped many people to express themselves and feel better. UK has come a long way in the past five years to help its citizen deal with mental health issues in schools, universities and work spaces. The taboo that mental health carried several years back has now been reduced and people help their loved ones by being more understanding and loving.
This is a very admirable step and should be something that other countries take seriously. Mental health is a very important issue that should not be treated as a taboo or neglected by the society.
Written by: Swathi Subhash Nair, United Kingdom
Intern- The World Women News
