As part of the annual HSC mental health campaign, people are being encouraged to look after their mental health just as much as they would their physical health to help deal with life’s daily challenges.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) and Health and Social Care (HSC) organisations have teamed up for this year’s campaign to encourage people to ’Look after your mental health”.

Between World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September and World Mental Health Day on 10 October, the PHA, five local HSC Trusts and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) are encouraging everyone to practise mental health self-care using the ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’.

Fiona Teague, Regional Lead for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing at the PHA, said: “Life can be stressful and demanding so this campaign highlights the importance of small daily actions and self-care techniques to help manage and benefit your mental health and wellbeing.

“The ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’ can act as a guide for your mental wellbeing, encouraging you to connect, keep learning, be active, take notice and give. Making these steps part of our daily life can help build resilience around our mental and emotional wellbeing.

“Looking after our mental health is not something we should just do when we are feeling down, it’s something we should proactively maintain just like our physical health.

“Everyone can benefit from the ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’. If we can build these in to our daily routine, we will soon feel the benefits and improvements to our overall wellbeing. It will help us to engage our minds, be more active and connect with others. Take 5 will start to become part of our lives and, if you are already practising them, then encourage others to try them out and feel the benefits too.”

The ‘Take 5 steps to wellbeing’ are: Connect, Keep Learning, Be Active, Take Notice and Give:

Connect

Connect with the people around you: family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, work, school or in your local community. Think of these relationships as the cornerstones of your life and spend time developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

Keep learning

Don’t be afraid to try something new, rediscover an old hobby or sign up for a course. Take on a different responsibility, fix a bike, learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food.

Set a challenge you will enjoy. Learning new things will make you more confident, as well as being fun to do.

Be active

Go for a walk or run, cycle, play a game, garden or dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity that you enjoy; one that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Take notice

Stop, pause, or take a moment to look around you. What can you see, feel, smell or even taste? Look for beautiful, new, unusual or extraordinary things in your everyday life and think about how that makes you feel.

Give

Do something nice for a friend, colleague, or stranger, thank someone, smile, volunteer your time or consider joining a community group. Look out as well as in. Seeing yourself and your happiness linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and will create connections with the people around you.

Fiona continued: “It is also important that we recognise the signs of poor mental health in ourselves and others and take steps to try to improve it. Mental health problems are common with one-in-five people experiencing a mental health problem at any given time. Some simple changes to our lifestyle such as exercising, having good sleep habits and connecting with people in our community can help however it important to seek professional help if things are not improving.”   

People can and do recover from mental health problems. If you or someone you know is in distress or crisis, you can call Lifeline and speak to a trained counsellor 24/7. Call 0808 808 8000.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger of suicide or you require urgent medical attention, call 999. Further information on how to improve your mental health and a list of services that can provide mental health support is also available at www.mindingyourhead.info.