Today is World Mental Health Day (which is part of the reason we scheduled our press releases for this week), and there have been numerous campaigns over the years on this day to raise awareness and reduce stigma.I fully support this, and proudly took part in Young Mind's #HelloYellow campaign this year by digging out my most obnoxiously bright jumper to wear to work to spark wellbeing conversations.
However, as the years roll on and we congratulate ourselves for getting better at talking about mental health, there's something that I've noticed grates on me. While we're encouraging people to 'speak up', 'ask for help', 'reach out', we're simultaneously watching the services that those same people will need to access and rely upon be stripped back and shut down. During our years of austerity measures we've watched public and third sector services as they're decimated and I worry that all of these people who, after years of silence, finally reach out will have a damaging experience. This damaging experience of being turned away or struggling to access services that are stretched may mean that they never speak out again, or that they feel forced to make even more destructive choices for themselves.
I think that our World Mental Health Day celebrations and campaigns need to increasingly profile not only our willingness to talk about our difficulties, but also whether we're appropriately funding and resourcing the support mechanisms that we need.
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