Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual event when there is an opportunity for the whole of the UK to focus on achieving good mental health. The Mental Health Foundation is a charity which began the event in 2001. Each year, the Foundation continues to set the theme, organise and host the week. The event has grown to become one of the biggest awareness weeks across the UK and globally. This year, the theme for Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘Loneliness’.

Where can I read more? To read more about Mental Health Awareness Week you can visit the Mental Health Foundation website here.

Links to national resources:

You can register to download a free (or make an optional donation to the charity) ‘Loneliness School Pack’ produced by the foundation here. This school pack provides the materials and resources needed to support pupils to understand what loneliness is, how it can make us feel, and where to find support. The pack is designed to be used in secondary schools, but it has lots of useful information for primary schools too.

To support Mental Health Awareness Week, Mentally Healthy Schools has produced a primary and secondary school toolkit which you can download here. Mentally Healthy Schools is a free website for UK primary and secondary schools and further education settings, offering school staff information, advice and practical resources to better understand and promote pupils’ mental health and wellbeing. BBC Teach has created a collection of resources to promote the importance of mental well-being for use in primary and secondary schools. You can access the resources here.

Support within West Sussex: Within the West Sussex Services for Schools website, you can access the ‘Thought-Full’ web pages where you can find information about ‘Thought-Full’, the West Sussex Mental Health Support Teams in Schools service. The team supports schools in West Sussex with all aspects of mental health and emotional wellbeing. You can access the pages here.