Mind Yourself
- Written by
- Dyani Van Basten Batenburg
Greater mental awareness is everyone’s game
This September marks Mental Health Awareness month, with greater onus this year especially encouraging all Kiwis to check in with themselves and loved ones. Like so many foundations operating in a COVID-19 environment, sustaining support and increasing reach to New Zealanders countrywide has been the core focus for our Mental Health Foundation (MHF). When tough times hit, their team picked up the pace and collaborated with All Right? to develop a national wellbeing campaign called Getting Through Together. They also quickly adapted many of their popular resources to provide tailored information, such as Workplace Wellbeing during COVID-19. The goal? To ensure all Kiwis had the right tools and support to draw on now and into the future.
Mentally diverse
Because mental health isn’t something that just a handful of people will experience – it’s far more common than many of us realise, explains Shaun Robinson, chief executive Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.
“What we do know is that half of us will experience a mental health issue during our life-time. Each year one in five people do,” he explains. “Mental health is part of the human condition, no matter where you live. Similar experiences can be seen across other countries like New Zealand. There is nothing particularly unique about us in this regard,” he says. There’s still a long way to go to ensure the stigma faced by people living with mental distress is broken, despite legislation against stigma in the workplace, but New Zealand is making inroads, says Shaun.
Not mutually exclusive
Accepting stress, anxiousness and uncertainty as ‘normal’ and not an exclusive set of emotions and feelings, is also key to mental health care, says Shaun. “Anxiety and uncertainty were not unusual during COVID-19. We know that for some people COVID-19 created challenges and stress. For others, the unity of fighting COVID-19 together and the reduced pressures some faced during lockdown, had a protective effect on mental health.”
Be present
The key takeaways Shaun and his team would like Kiwis to really consider – September and beyond – is being available, not being judgemental and seeking out the best support for themselves and others.
The Mental Health Foundations top resource picks include:
- Five Ways to Wellbeing and Te Whare Tapa Wha
- Worried About Someone
- And, as part of their response to COVID-19, MHF produced a series of resources for people struggling with mental health problems, you can find them here: https://www.mentalhealth. org.nz/get-help/getting-throughtogether/having-a-hard-timegetting-through/
Reach out for support, guidance and toolkits at, www.mentalhealth.org.nz.
To get involved with mental health week jump on to, www.mhaw.nz