aGet free resources for Mental Health Month Oct 19

A Mental Health Month event is a great way to decrease stigma and encourage people to seek help for themselves and others.

This October, Aspect Mental Health is offering free mental health resource kits to our clients, to help raise awareness about mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

Request free kit

This year’s theme is “Share the Journey”.

Life can be challenging and we all have our ups and downs. Some people face the challenge of living with a mental illness and all the ups and downs that go with that. So, who are these people that mental illness affects? When we gathered a diverse range of people together – friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances, we found out that mental illness can touch anyone.

Mental illness can sometimes inspire misunderstanding and even fear in people who haven’t had much or any experience with it. Remember, it’s just as much an illness as any physical health problem. Those affected have as much right to respect and support as anyone else – think how we’d wish others to treat us if we were affected.

When working with someone with a mental illness, we may not be the person’s supervisor or manager, but we can still demonstrate this respect and support by making helpful, rather than unhelpful responses, to situations. It helps to have a little understanding of the impact of a person’s symptoms. Symptoms can be physical, such as disruption to sleep and eating, emotional, such as being unable to feel positive feelings, psychological, such as being highly self-critical, or behavioural, such as withdrawing from people or avoiding certain activities

The effects of mental illness, often invisible, are just as distressing and disabling as those of a physical illness. Be sensitive to this and remind others if necessary.