Mental Health Awareness 2024: Movement, Learning, Drawing
Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 (May 13 to 19) takes as it theme this year, which ties in with our recently launched Learning Zone as well as illustrations created at the reception we held in the Scottish Parliament at the end of March.
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week this week, from May 13 to 19. This year, the theme of ‘movement’ takes centre stage. ‘Movement’, here, refers to physical exercise, which has been shown to have a beneficial effect on mental as well as physical health. As the Mental Health Foundation writes on its website: ‘Going for a walk in your neighbourhood, putting on your favourite music and dancing around the living room, chair exercises when you’re watching television – it all counts!’
Physical exercise is one of the coping strategies we talk about in The Learning Zone, a recently launched section of our website dedicated to emotional health and mental wellbeing.
A new section of the SCCR website, the Learning Zone partners information on the role adolescent brain development plays in family conflict with practical coping strategies young people can use to enhance their emotional health and wellbeing. The Learning Zone tells the story of how our brains interpret the world and how this impacts bodies, emotions and behaviours. If we can understand and recognise emotions in ourselves and others we can develop skills to help process difficult emotions, regulate our emotions when needed, and improve our relationships with others.
The Learning Zone builds on the SCCR’s previous psychoeducational digital resources over the past ten years. Recently, we held a reception at the Scottish Parliament to mark our decade of conflict resolution. Prior to the launch of SCCR in March 2014, a 2012 Cyrenians report, Mediation and the Prevention of Homelessness, shaped a great deal of thinking about SCCR’s role. The report found that of the three strands of funding available to tackle youth homelessness in Scotland – early intervention, crisis and aftercare – most funds were earmarked for the crisis stage with relatively little spent on the early intervention stage. Cyrenians set up SCCR to correct that imbalance.
Looking ahead to the next ten years, and how we can better use the Learning Zone to facilitate learning about relationships, and so improve mental health, SCCR envisions extending its reach even further upstream, targeting younger age groups. As we ponder whether ‘ten is the new 14’ in terms of intervention, the SCCR team is already looking at how we could adapt existing resources for a younger audience.
On the subject of whether ‘ten is the new 14’ – that was one of the questions we posed at our reception. Artist Jenny Capon attended the reception and has created a wonderful, colourful and informative ‘visual minutes’ representing the event and what was discussed. If you would like to download the image, click here. Otherwise, we’ll be sharing excepts from the work via our socials all this week.
So, this Mental Health Awareness Week, let’s celebrate the strides we’ve made while acknowledging the journey ahead. Let’s embrace movement, not just in our bodies but in our attitudes towards mental health.
Join SCCR as we embark on this journey towards a world healthier in body and mind. These ‘moments of movement’ as the Mental Health Foundation puts it, whether it’s a walk in nature or a mindful meditation session, are important steps towards creating a world where good mental health is within everyone’s reach.
