To mark World Mental Health day tomorrow, a leading charity is calling on Brits to share some simple facts about mental health in order to decrease the stigma surrounding the problem.
One-in-four adults and one-in-10 children are likely to have a mental health problem in any given year, which the Mental Health Foundation says can “have a profound impact on the lives of tens of millions of people in the UK, and can affect their ability to sustain relationships, work, or just get through the day”.
In light of this the charity is calling on health professionals and the public to share a factsheet they have created on social media with family, friends and colleagues.
“We believe that effectively supporting people experiencing mental health problems is on target to become one of the greatest public health challenges of our time. Stigmatising and discriminatory treatment can be particularly distressing when a person is experiencing a health crisis.”
The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day, which is led by the World Health Organization and began in 2006, is dignity.
“We all have mental health and by failing to treat people with mental health problems with dignity we make it more difficult to ensure that everyone takes steps to safeguard their wellbeing and to seek help, as it can lead to self-stigma, low confidence, low self-esteem, withdrawal and social isolation,” the charity stated.
