Swindon Wellbeing is a new campaign to promote mental health and wellbeing – the campaign is being launched to coincide with World Mental Health Day on Sunday 10th October.
The campaign wants to get people talking and to understand that everyone has mental health.
“Wellbeing and looking after ourselves and each other has never been more important” says campaign coordinator Jol Rose.
“Swindon Wellbeing aims to help people stay healthy – and to know that there is plenty of help available if needed. Sign-posting to local organisations who can help is a big part of what we are doing” he said.
Twenty local organisations have been joined by people with lived experience of mental health problems to launch Swindon Wellbeing. Supported by funding from Swindon Borough Council, the campaign team is dedicated to raising awareness of these important issues.
Swindon-based charity IPSUM is one of the organisations behind the project. Julie Mattinson, IPSUM Director, says that many people still don’t get the help they need. “There is still a lot of stigma around – many people are worried about sharing their problems with others” she said.
“Our campaign wants to let people know that we all need help sometimes. Everyone can have problems, so it’s OK to ask for help. We’re lucky in Swindon to have so many great organisations – it’s just knowing how to find them” she added.
The campaign will be promoting different aspects of the Five Ways to Wellbeing, a programme of five simple steps that can help us all improve our wellbeing and general health.
“There are some really practical things we can all do to promote wellbeing” says Samuel Robbins, one of the campaign coordinators.
“We want to start by talking about the first step – connect. Particularly after the experiences of the past eighteen months, connecting with friends, neighbours, families and communities has never been more important” he said.
The campaign is always looking for people to get involved – they can be contacted via their website www.swindon-wellbeing.org or Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
