Why we all need to be interested in mental health awareness training
Mental health awareness is central to all of us, it is not just something that effects troubled people. Good mental health awareness training is part of being a person and part of having good relationships with other people.
We should all develop better mental health awareness, awareness of our psychological identity and experience, and the way these experiences impact on the people around us.
What could better mental health awareness training mean to you?
Good mental health awareness would mean that you know more about:
- the events and relationships that shaped you
- what consequences those events have had on you
- your psychological strengths
- your psychological weaknesses
- how your problems and issues relate to these experiences
- how to continue to get the most out of yourself
- how to help and develop the people around you
The fact that more emphasis and enquiry is being given to raising mental health awareness training is very welcome, and I hope this raised awareness fundamentally shifts perspective so that we all take our mental health seriously.
Developing a greater sense of community, of a commitment to raising mental health awareness in the workplace, in schools and across our social networks is good for all of us. That’s why good training in this subject is so important.
I am sure that we all remember when schools and businesses were much less open in their attitudes of concern and responsibility to the individual.
The school would be focussed on results with less concern for how individuals thrived, bullying was common and vulnerable children would be left to fend for themselves.
It was the same in businesses where the emphasis on growth was measured not just in ROI but in terms of the power a manager had over his (usually his) employees. There was little regard for mental health awareness and certainly not for mental health awareness training, for care and development of people.
In both cases this encouraged bullying and isolation, and at the worst end, abuse. These experiences are very difficult for people to endure and they tend to have a very bad effect on mental health.
People who are bullied become cut off. They feel shame, anxiety and become depressed. When we no longer feel part of a group we are vulnerable.
It is important that we develop better mental health awareness and become more interested in spotting the signs of isolation, vulnerability, and unhappiness in ourselves and in others. And if we do spot these signs that we follow them up, that we try to make the effort to speak to someone about the issues. One way of doing this is through good mental health awareness training.
Talking, making good quality social connections and attachments is the best treatment of all. It strengthens us, it strengthens our communities.
People who start to feel cut off become stressed
They don’t perform well, they start to develop a negative pattern of working and relating to others. They become unhappy, and from this point things very easily get worse with absenteeism, self destructive behaviour and so forth.
In children and adolescents we see signs such as:
- problems at school,
- disorganisation
- poor concentration
- truancy
- social problems such as excessive drug use
- petty crime and so on
If the signs are ignored these adolescents run the risk of poor qualifications and of developing criminal records. It is down to us as a society to be more interested in mental health awareness, and to spot these signs and respond to them with appropriate care and concern. If not, this may become the beginning of poor mental health and unless it is addressed appropriately issues like depression and anxiety develop, and more complicated psychiatric diagnoses will follow.
So what should we do to raise mental health awareness?
- Listen
- Talk
- Care
- Develop an interest and understanding of our minds, and how our own mental health has developed
We can start by becoming progressively more interested in being open to issues involved with mental health awareness and the way these things impact upon us.
We can start to think more about who we are. We can try to look out for the people around us who may be struggling.
If we see signs of worry and so on, we could try to become interested in them, perhaps try to find out what’s going on for them. We could put more emphasis on developing sensitive conversations.
We need to build on this work, become better at taking care of ourselves and others
The more we do so, the more we all thrive and develop.
We become healthier, both individually and collectively. We are able to become more creative, develop better ideas, and generally have more energy.
How can Counselling Buckinghamshire help?
Free mental health awareness training download
Click here for a free copy of a workshop that l have given to a number of companies. The aim of the workshop is to start a better conversation about mental health awareness. To make it easier to become more interested and open about these subjects.
The more we become interested and prepared to talk, the more we lift the sense of stigma and debilitating isolation that can surround mental health awareness. The more we become able to see that mental health awareness is key to all of us.
At Counselling Buckinghamshire we have a depth of experience of working with people and helping them develop a greater understanding of mental health, and of helping businesses and organisations develop better mental health awareness training.
The work we do has a powerful and positive impact on people.
Contact now for a free telephone consultation to discuss how this approach may be relevant to you.
