Today, I had the privilege of being part of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Mental Health Fair, held on Thursday 2nd October, in recognition of World Mental Health Day 2025.
The event brought together a wide range of organisations and community groups working tirelessly to support the mental health and wellbeing of patients, families, and carers.
Why carers need to be at the heart of mental health conversations
As someone who has cared for a loved one experiencing mental health challenges, I know firsthand the importance of recognising and supporting carers through the groups i run.
Welcome back to another carer and mental health blog post for November. This blog focuses on Kings College hospital event for Tuesday 14th of November. The event was called “King’s Mental Health Fair”.
King’s College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth. Kings provide local hospital services for people living in the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, and Bromley.
However Kings college hospital feels not only physical health is important, but also mental health. Kings hospital also wants to work with community groups to help promote good health and mental wellbeing. So for 2023 it was the 2nd ever Mental Health Fair.
The mental health fair took place in the Boardroom which is in the Hambleden Wing, which ran from 11 am till 2 pm and hosted by Kieran Quirke who is the Associate Director of Nursing for Mental Health at Kings. The fair was open to all patients, staff and carers, which staff from Kings hospital attending and also staff from NHS maudsley dropping by.
There were some excellent stalls from organisations taking part. I visited a stall from the SHARP gallery where they mentioned exhibitions and workshops.
Age UK Lambeth had some very interesting handouts. Age UK Lambeth is an independent local charity working in Lambeth to offer support and services to older people.
I also checked a few things from the Kooth stall, which provides an anonymous site which helps children and young people to feel safe and confident in exploring their concerns and seeking professional support.
Then I spoke to Nathan who running the Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwark Samaritans stall. Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide
The next stall I visited was from Southwark Healthwatch. Healthwatch Southwark are the independent champion for the patient and public voice. They bring people together to influence health and social care services in Southwark to make them better. Everything they say and do is informed by their engagement with local people. Their aim is to address inequalities in health and social care and ensure local services are appropriate for Southwark’s diverse communities.
I then spoke to familiar faces at Lambeth Carers Hub. The carers hub seek to limit the challenges that carers face. They achieve this through four core workstreams: raising awareness of carers, influencing local policy through community engagement activities, improving carer wellbeing and connecting carers to each other and to support and training opportunities through their services.
I was also privileged to be part of the mental health fair as I promoted information on unpaid carers these being info on Carers UK, plus I gave away some of the books I wrote on carer awareness for those caring for someone with a mental illness and promoted my group for the Southwark & Lambeth MH carers forum.
Other important stalls were on the Mind and Body programme where they are committed to join up and deliver excellent mental and physical healthcare, research and education so that they treat the whole person.
There were many other organisations and stalls, but overall I felt the event was great partnership working with the community as we all work together with the hospital to increase awareness, health and wellbeing for all.
Welcome back to another blog by Matthew McKenzie carer advocate and campaigner. Just a quick reminder this website focuses on those who care for someone with a mental illness. I am talking about unpaid carers, usually friends and families. Just recently we had an awareness campaign “World Mental Health Day” 2022.
World Mental Health Day runs on Monday, 10 October. For the UK, the national mental health charity “Mental Health Foundation” leads on raising awareness and campaigning for better mental health.
Of course there are other organisations and charities that help raise awareness of mental health. I have recently been engaging with hospitals to focus on unpaid carers. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the organisations that engages heavily with one of my carer forums (Joint Southwark and Lambeth). I was delighted to be asked to promote my carers group at the latest World mental health fair organised by King’s college Hospital.
King’s College Hospital mental health lead Kieran Quirke organised the event. Kieran is the associate Director of Nursing for Mental Health at King’s College Hospital. The fair was to introduce to staff, patients and carers about what is available in the community.
The organisations that took part were the following
The Well Centre Lambeth Carers Hub Age UK Lambeth Southwark and Lambeth Mental Health carers Forum The SHARP Gallery Southwark Wellbeing Hub The Butterfly Dementia Cafe Kooth (youth mental wellbeing support) Lambeth and Southwark MIND Mosaic Clubhouse South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
I am sure there were many more, but the important thing is that the community was brought together to network and help raise awareness of all the important work that they do. I was told that the room the MH fair took place, had just been recently decorated. This shows that King’s College Hospital are trying their best to invest in what is important to the community.
For my stall, I focused on the importance of unpaid carers given the empowerment to promote networking, peer groups and advocacy.
I hope there will be more events like this next year.
A Caring Mind 