- Date: 21/09/2020
Stoke-on-Trent support and wellbeing network; The Collaborative Network, launch new campaign to raise awareness of mental health post COVID19 pandemic.
The Collaborative Network is a community of organisations and individuals from the public sector, private sector and third sector who, collectively, have a passion for delivering systems and services differently to better serve the communities of Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire. The network is made up of local charities and organisations including Concrete, Glow and Revival (part of Honeycomb Group), YMCA, Alice Charity, Entrust and VAST.
Their latest campaign focuses on the huge impact the COVID19 pandemic has had on people’s mental health. The Centre for Mental Health believe up to 10 million people in England will need either new or additional mental health support as a direct consequence of the crisis[1]. That’s almost 20% of the population. They also believe 1.5 million of these will be children or young people under 18 years old.
The Centre for Mental Health predict that most people will need support with depression, anxiety or both. The minority will need help with trauma and bereavement or loss.
This is a huge concern, especially in Stoke-on-Trent where it’s estimated 24,674 people aged 18-64 already have a mental health condition[2]. The Collaborative Network hope to help local people find the support they need, but also help people identify that they may already be experiencing post COVID19 mental health.
The campaign; Is everything OK? Launches today (21 December 2020). It hopes to raise awareness of the signs of poor mental health, especially in those that have never experienced it before. The campaign also hopes to direct people to the multiple mental health support services both in the local area and available nationally.
Honeycomb Group, Director of Support and Wellbeing Melanie Dunn explains: ‘The pandemic is having a major impact on the lives and wellbeing of millions of
people. There has never been a more pressing need to ask ourselves and our loved ones ‘is everything Ok?’.
“Many of us are struggling to maintain our mental wellbeing right now. The opportunity to connect with others face to face has been lost so cues that we may pick up from others that things aren’t ok could be missed. We may ourselves struggle to acknowledge our own feelings, our own challenges.
“It is for this reason that the Collaborative Network decided to launch a campaign encouraging people to think about their own and others mental wellbeing, and support all to give help and/or reach out for help at this most difficult of times.”
You can find out more about the campaign and The Collaborative Network here:
To support the campaign please follow the Collaborative Network using the links below.
[2] https://www.stoke.gov.uk/directory_record/333579/joint_strategic_needs_assessment