16 May 2025
By P Matthews, Programme Coordinator, Social Care Institute for Excellence
Mental Health Awareness Week this year takes place Monday 12 – Sunday 18 May and this year’s theme is community. The week offers a powerful moment for everyone to work towards a common goal by sparking conversations and shining a light on mental health, challenging the stigma that surrounds it. It is a week that encourages open conversations about mental health and reminds people that they do not have to face mental health struggles alone.
Why Mental Health Awareness Week is important to me
Mental health is something that affects everybody – myself included. My experiences with it have shaped my life in profound ways.
My mum has struggled with severe mental illness for most of her life. As a child, my siblings and I witnessed her being admitted to hospitals on multiple occasions. We saw things that no child should have to see. These memories stay with you and can shape how you grow up and cope with your own struggles.
During these difficult times, my dad worked hard to keep the family moving forward, all while dealing with everything himself. He raised myself and my siblings largely by himself. Luckily, we had the support of other family members and our friends. Whether it was helping with childcare when things became too overwhelming, spending time with us, or simply being there to listen.
Over time, I came to understand that this was our ‘community.’ Their support didn’t remove the hard times, but it made all the difference. That is why this year’s theme, ‘community’, means so much to me.
Mental health doesn’t mean you need to exist in isolation; it is deeply important to connect to the people around you in your support networks. This could be family, friends, neighbours, work, schools or clubs; your community could have the power to help someone in a time of need.
I do want to be clear; I don’t blame my mum for anything. Mental illnesses are not a choice, and she was doing the best she could in incredibly hard circumstances. I have very fond memories of my childhood, and we have a wonderful relationship to this day.
Mental Health Awareness Week encourages everyone to talk more openly, challenge the stigma and discrimination, and promote mental well-being for individuals and communities. It is a very important reminder that mental health can affect anyone, in any part of your life, and it is ok to ask for help and support.
How SCIE is supporting mental health
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) believes that strong communities are built through great care and support that respond to people’s real lives. Improving social care is essential to supporting mental health, by helping people stay connected to their communities, maintain relationships and access opportunities.
During Mental Health Awareness Week, it is important to highlight how better social care improves outcomes for individuals and families living with mental health conditions.
Here’s how we are contributing to better mental health outcomes:
- Promoting strength-based approaches: SCIE champions strengths-based, person-centred models that focus on individuals’ strengths, including personal strengths and community networks, promoting their wellbeing.
- Providing support to achieve integrated care: We are working with the Local Government Association to produce an accessible and practical resource that supports local systems in fulfilling their ambition of integration, encouraging services to work together.
- Supporting co-production: Co-production with people with lived experience of social care underpins and informs what we do, and we actively involve people with lived experience in designing and improving services, because we know the best support is built with the people who use it.
The Mental Health Foundation have selected a great topic this year, and has some very useful information on their website to explain more about Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme of community.
