In this newsletter:
As we approach the holidays - whether you’re celebrating or not - I hope you will have time for some rest, self-care and reflection on your successes over the last year, as well as perhaps the things you want to focus on or change as we head into 2020.
Since your last MHFA England newsletter, we have moved closer to our mission of training 1 in 10 of the adult population, from 1:90 to 1:85. That’s amazing! Thank you for making this happen.
Finally, you will know that as a social enterprise we invest any profit back into achieving our mission. Our focus currently is on providing free or subsidised training for those who work with young people, who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it. Over the past six months we have trained almost 1,700 people from organisations including The Children’s Trust, the England and Wales Cricket Board, Girl Guides and Scout groups, which I’m super proud of.
I am enormously grateful for the work that you do day in, day out to empower people and to change and save lives. I’m looking forward to 2020 with optimism, knowing that together we will continue to play our part in improving the mental health of the nation.
I wish you a restful, nourishing holiday season.
All best,
Simon Blake OBE
Chief Executive,
MHFA England
As part of our approach to staff wellbeing, the MHFA England office will be closed from 4pm on Friday 20 December until 9am on Thursday 2 January, for our annual winter wellbeing closure.
None of the central team will be available to respond to enquiries during this time, until we reopen on Thursday 2 January.
We hope you have some time over the festive period to relax and switch off. Our team will be back to work rested, energised and looking forward to the year ahead on Thursday 2 January.
Ahead of the General Election, we’ve been calling on parliamentary candidates to show their support for workplace mental health by signing the Where’s Your Head At? Workplace Manifesto.
Dozens of MPs have already signed up, and Labour and the Liberal Democrats have both recently made pledges to support bringing mental health first aid into the workplace.
We’d love to get support from parliamentary candidates right across the political spectrum. If you haven’t already, please take a few minutes to tweet your local candidates. Thank you!
If you are MHFA England trained, you know how much difference a conversation can make. We’re supporting Samaritans’ Brew Monday campaign because we want everyone to be able to talk about mental health and seek help when needed.
What better way to kick-start everyone’s New Year with workplace wellbeing than by hosting a morale-boosting Brew Monday event? Help Samaritans to spread the word by getting involved and encouraging your colleagues to join you.
When it’s cold and grey outside, getting people together to connect over a warming cuppa helps to make us feel better and manage the ups and downs of life. You can hold a Brew Monday event at work, at home, wherever you like. Any Monday this January or February, or anytime that’s good for you.
Learn more and sign up to take part at samaritans.org/brewmonday.
Our friends at St John Ambulance are running their Embedding Mental Health Best Practice in the Workplace Conference in Birmingham on 27 February 2020, for anyone working to support mental health in the workplace. Guest speakers include Susannah Robertson-Hart from the BBC and Sneh Sidhu-Barker from Rolls-Royce.
Book by 10 January for a 15% early bird discount.
MHFA England instructor, Bianca Jones recently won an MMG Honours Award for the work she is doing at EDP Training to deliver MHFA, wellbeing and resilience training to businesses in the South West of England.
Bianca is passionate about raising awareness and reducing the stigma of mental health, particularly in the BAME community. Next year she plans to offer new training in culturally aware mental health, to increase understanding of societal, economic and environmental risk factors and the impact of discrimination and bias on mental health.
Thanks to some terrific teamwork, we reached our 2019 target of training 17,000 people in the West Midlands by 18 November – with six weeks to spare!
Sarah Barge, Regional Development Coordinator, says: “We’d like to say a big thank you to Instructor Members in the West Midlands, who have worked closely with the central team to train a record number of Mental Health First Aiders in workplaces and communities.”
MHFA England has a partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority, which aims to increase mental health literacy within the region.
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