Everyone's Business
Mental health and wellbeing is not just for people who are mentally ill....
Mental ill health and difficulties in maintaining positive mental wellbeing are growing problems –
1 in 6 employees experience stress, anxiety or depression at any one time,
1 in 10 children have a mental health disorder
Up to half of all people having depression at some point in their lives,
The cost of mental ill health in the workplace is equal to over £1000 per year for every employee in the country (over £25 BILLION each year)
this really is Everyone’s Business.
On World Mental Health Day (10th October 2011), Milton Keynes Mind launches our new campaign to try and increase spending to support wellbeing across our community.
With less than 10p in every £100 of mental health spending going to counselling
services and nothing being spent on
mental health promotion by the NHS locally, we are the real support for many in
Milton Keynes, offering accessible, low cost services across a range of areas
and meeting considerable local need.
Last year we
supported over 3500 counselling sessions, over 1500 social and education
support sessions, provided advice to over 800 people via phone, email and face
to face and campaigned on a number of areas. With over £6 million being cut
from local mental health spending over the next few years (and with Milton
Keynes NHS already spending less per head on mental health services than most of England), we need to be
ready to support many more.
Milton Keynes Mind is the local mental health and wellbeing charity for the borough and new city of Milton Keynes. We have supported our community for over 40 years through a range of information, advice, services and campaigns. We do this without financial support from the council or health services locally
We are now
looking for the community to help us support them. To do this, we are aiming to
raise £50,000 to ensure that we can continue to provide the services we already
do and to increase our support to schools, employers, organisations and the
wider community. This
includes helping people who are socially isolated be able to join in local
activities, building real and lasting friendships; increasing our social and
educational support groups that are currently oversubscribed and have long
waiting lists; improve the information and advice service so that more people
can get the help they need, when they need it and to continue our campaigns to
improve mental health and wellbeing across our city. You can keep up to date with our progress by following 'Everyone's Business' on Facebook - click here
To start this fundraising drive, our Director, Steve McNay is running the Great South Run on Oct 30th. This is a 10 mile run which, for him, is a fairly significant challenge (as a man who likes his food, the odd pint or two and who has only really run to make it to the chip shop before it closes in the last few years....). You can support him by making a donation (click here) or by visiting the Facebook page to keep an eye on his progress....(click here).
If you can support us, either through making a donation, by organising an event or by encouraging your company to get involved in this campaign, email us at everyone@mkmind.org.uk, or click here other ways to get in touch.
