May 2022 Parenta magazine

Mental Health
Awareness Week
We cover mental health a lot in the Parenta
magazine, since it is something that has
a profound effect on how we live our lives.
Good mental health is needed to maintain
health, hold down a job, make ends meet,
and ultimately, give us a reason for living.
Poor mental health can have the totally
opposite effect, making us question our
sanity, our self-worth and in some severe
cases, whether our life is worth living at all.
In recent years, mental health has moved
from a taboo subject to a mainstream
one, and more and more people are
opening up about their own struggles with
mental health, to help themselves, and
ultimately to try to help others in a similar
position. All manner of people, from sports
stars, celebrities and royalty have been
willing over the last few years to share
their mental health stories to help start
conversations around the subject and find
solutions which work.
Mental Health Awareness Week runs each
year as an annual event aimed at getting
the whole of the UK to focus on achieving
good mental health. It was started by
the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) 21
years ago and is now one of the largest
awareness weeks across the UK and
internationally too. This year it runs from
9 – 15 May and the theme looks at a topic
which is still not often on many people’s
agendas and yet it is a growing problem in
the UK and around the world: loneliness.
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
“Eleanor Rigby” by John Lennon and Paul
McCartney. Written in 1966.
According to the official website:
“Loneliness is affecting more and more of
us in the UK and has had a huge impact
on our physical and mental health during
the pandemic. Our connection to other
people and our community is fundamental
to protecting our mental health and we
need to find better ways of tackling the
epidemic of loneliness.”
The coronavirus pandemic pushed us
all into isolation in one way or another.
People found themselves unable to meet
up with friends and families for months
on end; single people, whether young
or old found it difficult to exist without the
help and support of others; and even
those people isolating in houses with
members of their own family, discovered
that you can still feel lonely even if you are
surrounded by other people.
So this Mental Health Awareness Week,
the Mental Health Foundation is asking
everyone to raise awareness of loneliness
and find ways to tackle it in ourselves and
in our communities. As they say: “Reducing
loneliness is a major step towards a
mentally healthy society.”
As usual, there are plenty of ways to get
involved in your setting, but perhaps the
first thing to do is ask yourself what, if
anything, you know about loneliness? For
many of us, it is something we don’t even
like to consider, let alone admit to feeling.
Loneliness is when we feel that we do
not connect with others or have any
meaningful relationships in our life. It
can affect people of all ages, although
older people may be more vulnerable to
loneliness because they are more likely
to live alone. Statistics show that over 2
million people aged over 75 in England,
live alone, and half a million older people
can go 5 or 6 days a week without
speaking to anyone at all.
According to the website marmaladetrust.
org, whose aim is to raise awareness of
loneliness and identify and help those at
risk, there are several different types of
loneliness, including: