Mental Health Awareness Week
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week – a reminder that many people around us are carrying struggles we cannot see. Some are anxious and exhausted. Some are lonely, even in crowded rooms. Some are grieving quietly. Others are simply worn down by the pressure of trying to hold life together. And often people become very good at hiding it.
This year’s theme for the Mental Health Awareness Week is “Take Action”. As churches we are called to be a community where burdens are shared rather than hidden, where people are loved rather than overlooked, and where nobody has to walk through darkness alone. That can sound daunting, especially when many of us already feel stretched. But perhaps the invitation isn’t to do everything. Perhaps it’s simply to do the next loving thing in front of us.
Contact the friend you have lost touch with. Invite someone for coffee. Volunteer an hour somewhere local. Sit with somebody who is struggling instead of rushing past. If you are finding life hard yourself, perhaps taking action means speaking honestly and letting someone support you.
Churches don’t take the place of mental health professionals, but we can be communities of genuine welcome, patient listening, practical care and the compassion of Christ.
For more information about Mental Health Awareness Week, please visit:
If you need professional mental health support for yourself or someone else, please call 111 and choose the mental health option for 24/7 support and advice from the NHS. Alternatively, text the word SUSSEX to 85258 for a confidential text-based conversation with a trained volunteer from the Sussex Mental Healthline.
