Mental Health Awareness Week 2023
Thrive LDN and partners' activities for Mental Health Awareness Week, 15 – 21 May, 2023
Thrive LDN and partners' activities for Mental Health Awareness Week, 15 – 21 May, 2023
Wellbeing 
Awareness Week
Updated: 15/05/2023
Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) is an annual event hosted by the Mental Health Foundation. Taking place this year between 15-21 May 2023.
This year, the theme is ‘anxiety’. Across the UK, people are encouraged to get involved by sharing their experience of anxiety and the things that can help with the hashtag #ToHelpMyAnxiety.
As part of the campaign, the Mental Health Foundation will be publishing guidance on how we can manage and improve feelings of anxiety and prevent them from developing into a more serious mental health problem.
Anxiety
Explore Good Thinking’s anxiety resources this MHAW.
It’s natural to feel anxious, worried or scared in certain situations but it can sometimes be difficult to control these feelings.
The NHS defines anxiety as “a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe” and notes that it could lead to specific conditions, such as generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder.
If anxiety is interfering with your daily life, get support from Good Thinking to manage your worries and improve your wellbeing.
Promoting Good Thinking
For Mental Health Awareness Week, download a Good Thinking Anxiety communications guide which includes:
- an introduction to the Good Thinking digital mental wellbeing service and its advice and support for anxiety;
- suggested copy for social media posts that can be shared across your channels during Mental Health Awareness Week to raise awareness of Good Thinking and signpost to free resources available to Londoners
Workplace wellbeing
Stress, anxiety and burnout are common problems in the workplace and with current pressures from the cost of living crisis, the need to provide mental health support for employees is now more vital than ever.
It can be time-consuming to find good quality free resources that support your employee wellbeing strategy, so as London’s digital mental wellbeing service, Good Thinking has created an Employer Toolkit.
The toolkit aims to help organisations, wellbeing leads, HR teams and managers create a safe and supportive workplace in these challenging times.
Additionally, to mark Mental Health Awareness Week, we have supported Good Thinking with an update to their guide to looking out for friends and colleagues at work. The guide now includes tips and prompts on starting conversations about mental health taken from our conversation starter tool.
Messages of Hope collaboration
Fancy a daily pick-me-up from fellow Londoners?
View this post on Instagram
Launching during Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2023, an exciting new collaboration between Thrive LDN and Messages of Hope will see anonymous messages from Londoners shared daily from Instagram account @ThroughTogether to spread hope and break the stigma around mental health.
Hundreds of anonymous messages have been submitted from Londoners, many of whom have experienced their own difficulties. Messages contain personal positive affirmations alongside messages of encouragement, togetherness, or wellbeing wisdoms. The collaboration will bring the messages to life by sharing them publicly, aiming to offer hope and encouragement to those who may need it or offer ideas for supporting others who may be having a difficult time.
To find out more follow @ThroughTogether on Instagram and receive a daily pick-me-up in doing so.
This collaboration forms part of the wider Messages of Hope campaign, created by founder Beth Evans in 2020 as a result of her own personal mental health journey. For the launch of this new collaboration, Beth has written a blog about her experiences and why she started the campaign.
Mindfulness colouring sheets
To mark MHAW 2023, Beth has created a selection of mindfulness colouring worksheets. You can download these for free to print off and use at home.
Download the colouring sheets [PDF – 21MB]
Help promote @ThroughTogether
We would be grateful for support from London partners to help activate and amplify this new collaboration.
Download a communications toolkit for partners which outlines how you can help support and use the content from @ThroughTogether in your own communications.
Trauma-informed training
For MHAW 2023, we’re encouraging Londoners to begin free, trauma-informed practice training.
Thrive LDN has been working with Nicola Lester Psychological Trauma Consultancy to offer free, to support individuals and organisations to access pre-recorded trauma-informed practice training.
Offered at three levels, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, the training series is designed to help professionals and volunteers gain an understanding of the impact of trauma and to integrate a trauma informed approach to practice. Since launching in February, more than 2,250 people have accessed the training.
All training workshops and materials are now published to the Thrive LDN website.