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BLOG: COMING SOON: 2024 STIGMA SURVEY RESULTS
We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in our recent survey. We are delighted to announce that the results of the 2024 Surrey Stigma Survey will now be published in April due to an overwhelming response from the community. The analysis process has experienced a slight delay, ensuring that every voice is heard, and every insight is thoroughly examined. This initiative has garnered an incredible response, with a significant number of participants sharing their valuable experiences and perspectives.
“Your input is invaluable, and together, we can make a difference.”
BLOG: Let’s Talk Openly: Time to Talk Day 2024
In a world that often stigmatises mental health, Time to Talk Day serves as a powerful reminder that dialogue can be a catalyst for change.
Why is this day so crucial? Mental health affects us all, directly or indirectly. Yet, due to stigma and misconceptions, many suffer in silence. Time to Talk Day aims to shatter these barriers, encouraging everyone to share their experiences and seek support when needed. Reach out to a friend, a colleague, or a family member. Share your own experiences or simply lend a listening ear. The power of a conversation should never be underestimated.
This year, End Stigma Surrey is hosting free events across Surrey to provide resources that empower individuals in their mental health journey. Whether you’re looking for informative articles, self-help guides, or simply a route to connect with others who understand, End Stigma Surrey have got you covered.
BLOG: MENTAL HEALTH IS A UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHT
World Mental Health Day is about raising awareness of mental health and driving positive change. It’s also a chance to talk about mental health, how we need to look after it, and how important it is to get help if you are struggling. The theme for 2023 is ‘Mental health is a universal human right’ and addressing how far we have come in making this a reality.
Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. It is an integral component of health and well-being that underpins our ability to make decisions, build relationships and shape the world we live in. Yet sometimes it’s hard to identify or explain because it’s invisible, making it less tangible for some to process.
BLOG: MATT MCGUINNESS ON MENTAL HEALTH AND COMEDY
“I talk directly to the audience about my mental health. Heartfelt chat, laughs and original music rising from acapella to full-on rock n roll. It is a great night out.”
I’ve been on a strange path with my mental health and wellbeing. I don’t know many people who would see the chance to turn their breakdown into something to be performed in front of an audience. I feel like, with the show on World Mental Health Day, I’ve come full circle from an unplanned and chaotic start in 2018 to now playing at The Horton with its history in mental health.
Matt McGuinness brings We Are What We Overcome to The Horton, Epsom, on World Mental Health Day, Tuesday 10th October 2023. Click to read more and buy tickets.
BLOG: MENTAL HEALTH IN THE GRT COMMUNITY
It’s not easy for anyone to find their voice when talking about their own experiences with mental health or mind health as I like to call it, but when you come from an already very marginalised and often excluded group the journey to seek help and getting well can be much harder. I am Romany and proud.
In our everyday lives Gypsy, Roma Traveller Communities over many years have faced persecution and discrimination therefore our world is often closed off from the rest of society for our own protection. Many of us choose not to seek the help of an outside organisation for fear of further discrimination and lack of understanding of our culture.
BLOG: LEARNING I HAD ANXIETY AND OCD
Everybody wants to win at life and when you start to work on yourself, you really can’t lose.
My mental health journey started in September 2018. Whilst this is my actual start date, I’d probably been having mental health issues for a large part of my life. I was just under the illusion that I was ok, everybody has down days, seeking help seemed like a sign of weakness and made me vulnerable. I came from quite a “men just deal with things, you’ll be alright” type of mentality but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
BLOG: TIME TO TALK DAY 2023
“I don’t have time to be depressed”
Thursday 2 February was “Time to Talk” day. It’s a campaign sponsored by the mental health charity Mind to encourage people to take a moment out of their busy day to pause and check-in with friends, family and colleagues about how they are feeling and ask about their mental health.
This year I supported the conversation in my role as a Lived Experience Champion for the End Stigma Surrey anti-discrimination campaign. Read the full blog here.
BLOG: Student Mental Health at Surrey University
Students are at higher risk of developing mental health problems with research showing many people first experience mental health problems or first seek help when they are at university. Some may already be living with an existing mental health problem and be receiving help and support for this. As you transition to life as a student you may find that your support changes location or you transition from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) to adult services. It is important to continue your support if needed and become familiar with what this will look like for you as a student.
Here we talk to Oriana from University of Surrey Students’ Union to find out what support is available on campus.
BLOG: TIME TO TALK ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH
A few weeks ago we officially launched the End Stigma campaign for Surrey. One of our guests to speak on the day was Chris, an End Stigma Surrey Lived Experienced Champion.
In his talk he recognised that attitudes towards mental health have improved dramatically over the last few years. Not least because the lock-downs during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 had a knock on impact on the mental health of many people across the country. Whilst this increase in cases of poor mental health is in itself undesirable, it has made it less of a taboo topic of conversation. Friends have learned to ‘ask twice’ and workplaces realise that they need to do more to support their employees.
How can you
end stigma in surrey?
Everyone can make mental health matter and help reduce stigma and discrimination; in our day to day lives, at work, in the classroom, with friends, family and social groups.
Why not think about the different ways you could do something to raise awareness and reduce stigma around mental health, whether in your workplace, college, or community.
SOME WAYS YOU CAN GET INVOLVED:
Become a lived experience champion
Have lived experience of mental ill health or care for someone who does? Sign up as a Champion
Become a
workplace champion
Become a Workplace Champion to help make a real difference within your workplace.
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Want to share your story, become a Lived Experience Champion or follow us on social media?
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