Welcome to another Blog post from Author of A Caring Mind, carer activist and former carer Matthew Mckenzie. As of today being the 10 of October 2020. It is World Mental Health day and The theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is ‘mental health for all’.

There are many organisations and charities promoting world mental health day. If you want to see the video of this blog, then see below

World Mental Health day is about continuing to raise that much needed awareness of mental health each year. This year’s theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is ‘mental health for all’. When we talk about Mental Health, people tend to feel mental illness is about Mental health problems and how it affects around one in four people in any given year. Those illnesses such as depression and anxiety, to rarer conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Mental health problems affect around one in four people in each year and since this has been a tough year due to lockdowns and loss that have had a huge impact on our mental health.

However we can all feel depressed, angry, stressed or frightened. This is why Mental health is everyone’s business. We cannot continue to state severe mental illness is someone elses problem to fix. Taken to the extreme, even anger can become a mental health challenge if it gets out of control.

It does not help that around 450 million people live with mental disorders that are among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide (WHO’s World Health Report, 2001). The World Economic Forum (2018) noted that mental health disorders are on the rise in every country in the world and could cost the global economy up to $16 trillion between 2010 and 2030.

From job losses and uncertainty. We’ve all found ourselves under pressure and carers are not exempt from such pressures due to having to care and support someone suffering mental illness due to extra strain. It is important carers get a chance to support their own mental health and wellbeing, please its so important carers take a break and take time out even if only for a little while.

There still is mental health stigma leaves people feeling isolated and ashamed and not being able to access support, so this is one of the reasons for campaigning on World Mental Health day.

The good news is that you can do something for World Mental Health day and raise awareness, be it by talking about it, campaigning even if using social media or attending online events, it does not hurt to raise that awareness.