Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual event when there is an opportunity for everyone to focus on achieving good mental health.
Started by the Mental Health Foundation 21 years ago, the Foundation continues to set the theme, organise, and host the week each year. The event has grown to become one of the biggest awareness weeks across the UK and globally.
This year, the selected theme for the week is ‘nature’; connecting with nature and how nature can improve our mental health. It is a particularly important theme following a year of the pandemic. Research has shown that being in nature has been one of the most popular ways people have tried to sustain good mental health.
Here is a recap of the Group’s activities for Mental Health Awareness Week 2021.
Monday - 'Breaking the Silence'
We started Mental Health Awareness Week with a guest talk from the renowned David Beeney from Breaking the Silence. David’s talk was fantastic, he took us through breaking the stigma around mental health and ways of maintaining our mental resilience as 2021 progresses.
Wednesday - ‘Cuppa & Chat’
Mid-week, each of us received a gift and were encouraged to take a break to talk in groups of four about mental health and the things in our daily lives that can affect it.
Friday - 'Stepping into Nature Together'
From 13:30 onwards everyone was encouraged to spend the afternoon away from their desk and to step out into nature. The number of steps was recorded as we walked with our team and/or family.
There was an incentive to record as many steps as possible with targets matched by Group donations to Macmillan.
As a Group, our efforts, and sore feet, raised £1,750! In total, we all walked 409,239 steps, a great afternoon with some excellent individual performances.
The InterQuest Family members that had the most steps counted at the end of the day also won a new, box-fresh pair of trainers of their choice, the winners were as follows:
1st Place - Klaudia Kasprowicz
2nd Place - Richard Cramp
3rd Place - Dave Mackey and Anna Guglielmucci
Shout out to everyone who took part and stay tuned for more events similar to this in the future.