Every year, Northern Healthcare support Mental Health Awareness Week by taking part in a range of activities throughout the week. The theme for Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 was loneliness.
This year, our services marked the week with lots of activities and brainstorming around the topic of loneliness, with a focus on how to tackle feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Support workers Paula and Olivia supported residents to create a positivity board filled with encouraging quotes. They also put together a coping strategy board where staff and residents wrote down tips for coping when they feel sad.
Our residents shared some advice on what helps them to tackle loneliness and created a wall of advice to help others.
Our residents also made the most of the beautiful sunshine and took some time to walk out in the fresh air with a visit to Brockholes Nature Reserve, and a trip to the park. Taking a walk with a friend is a great way to tackle loneliness.
Our residents baked cornflake crispy cakes and held a coffee morning to bring everyone together. Residents also created a positivity wall displaying words of encouragement for each other – a really lovely idea!
The team planned a week of activities to mark Mental Health Awareness Week 2022. The end of the working week was designated as the activity fun day!
The day began with Sensory Hour, where residents sat in the lounge with sensory lights and took it in turns to choose a song to listen to. Early into the afternoon, residents enjoyed a game of Trivial Pursuit and a spot of gardening. The final activity of the day was a treasure hunt, where clues where hidden behind green objects around the service.
Residents and staff also wore green to show their support for Mental Health Awareness Week 2022.
In this video, our team members share their top tips for tackling loneliness, and what they like to do when they feel lonely:
Ashley Mancey-Johnson, Managing Director also shared some advice around working from home and reflected on the week: “The pandemic has seen a lot of businesses move to more remote working, and this can leave people feeling quite isolated. I think that it is important to find ways to connect with colleagues, whether that is taking the opportunity to go into the office a couple of times a week, scheduling in some video calls, meeting up after work, or going out for a working lunch, for example. These things are all good ways of maintaining your support and social networks and avoiding getting to a place where you’re isolated and lonely when working from home.
“This Mental Health Awareness Week has been a great time to reflect and it has been lovely to see our services getting involved with a range of activities exploring the theme of loneliness and helping to spread such an important message.
If you’re feeling lonely, reach out to someone, whether it’s a friend or family member, or contact one of the helplines listed at the end of the video. Remember, no matter how lonely you feel, you are never alone.”
