October promotes World Mental Health Day, and to reflect this we ran a week long campaign which celebrated and raised awareness about the issues surrounding mental health. This year we focussed on 'bringing mental health out of the shadows and into the spotlight' : We wanted to promote the subject of mental health in as many varied activities as we could and were overwhelmed with the student engagement with the project.
Students from CSAD held a wonderful 'Emotive Art' exhibition in Zen, the Dance Society choreographed and performed a special piece named '#WalkingOutofDarkness and the SDA Society held an 'Articulate' session, acknowledging that it is often difficult to speak out in difficult times. At the end of the week we held a refreshing lunchtime walk to close the campaign.
Alongside this we placed information stations on both campus and social media messages focussed on #Did You Know elements about mental health; our aim was to get students talking about their own mental health and to understand that it is part of everyday life.
The campaign will resurface again in February when we celebrate Universities Mental Health Day #WalkingOutof Darkness