Dear friends,
We hope you are keeping well in these extremely difficult times. We know that for a lot of people, this lockdown is feeling even harder than previous ones. We continue to stand in solidarity with you, and to battle behind the scenes for equality in mental health.
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week, and we are clear that for children to be mentally healthy and resilient, they need safe homes, the right resources, love and support. It is vital that every opportunity is taken to tackle poverty and inequality which can have such a devastating impact on children’s mental health. To make change happen, we also need the facts, which is why we’ve updated our popular children’s mental health fact sheet.
We have had some incredible entries to our A Year in Our Lives project, telling stories of the pandemic and how it’s affected our mental health. It’s not too late to be part of this amazing initiative – submissions are open until the end of March.
If you’re looking for ways to look after your wellbeing at the moment, our brief guide has some useful ideas, and we’ve signposted to a range of other resources here.
"Children having a fair chance in life; safe homes, resources, opportunities, education, love and support: those are the things that make children resilient."
Sarah Hughes on lockdown 3, Children's Mental Health Week and homeschooling
We're delighted to still be receiving so many amazing, heartfelt submissions to our writing project. It's a privilege to be trusted with your stories and we're incredibly grateful to everyone who's taken the time to share their experience of the pandemic and the impact on their mental health. Have a read of all the pieces we've published so far here.
Submissions are open until the end of March so there's still time for you to get involved. Find all the information you need here.
"I've done lots of surveys and interviews about personal experience of the pandemic but your project is the best as it gives us all the opportunity to tell our diverse stories in whatever way is best for us. As such it is very empowering research." - Contributor to A Year in Our Lives
One Million Steps We're incredibly proud of all our amazing One Million Steps participants who've been braving all weathers to raise money for the Centre's life-changing research. Here's a few snaps from some of our wonderful staff members out on their walks. You can support our work here
We hope you've enjoyed hearing about our work bringing equality for mental health closer.
We'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions for this newsletter and our digital presence - drop me an email at [email protected].
