Mental Health Awareness Week 16-22 May

Mental Health Awareness Week will be marked this week for the 16th year, highlighting the impact of relationships on our mental health.

Since the first awareness week was held in 2000, the charity Mental Health Foundation has generated public debate on mental health problems as a growing global health concern and factors that influence our well-being.

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The theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is relationship. The charity calling on people to commit to maintaining good relationships with friends, family and colleagues, which is fundamental to our health and happiness.

Why relationships?

The charity highlights the need for a greater focus on the quality of our relationships, as well as the barriers to health relationships such as bullying.

“We need to understand just how fundamental relationships are to our health and well-being.”

“We cannot flourish as individuals and communities without them. In fact, they are as vital as better-established lifestyle factors, such as eating well, exercising more and stopping smoking,” the Mental Health Foundation states.

Statistics

Mental health and behavioural problems, such as depression, anxiety and drug use, are reported to be the key drivers of disability worldwide.

One in four people in England will experience a mental health problem at any given year.

Major depression is thought to be the second leading cause of disability around the world, contributing to suicide and ischaemic heart disease.

Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain.

One in ten young people will experience a mental health problem.

Nine out of ten people with mental health problems experience stigma and discrimination.

In England, women are more likely than men to experience a common mental health problem. They are also twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders.

According to the London School of Economics, the promotion, prevention and early intervention is key in cutting the cost of mental illness. Around £18 is saved for every £1 spent on early intervention psychosis teams that work with young people in their first episode of schizophrenia.

There were 8.2 million cases of anxiety in Britain in 2013.