Celebrating our partners this World Mental Health Day

This year has been a tough one for us all. The months of lockdown and loss have had a huge impact on our mental health and for many organisations, coronavirus is still creating a lot of uncertainty. So prioritising mental health has never been more important than it is now. 

That’s why for World Mental Health Day this year we’ve been encouraging people to do one thing for better mental health. Many of our partners have been getting involved and taking the opportunity to bring staff together (virtually) to raise awareness of mental health in their workplaces. 

McLaren Racing got involved with World Mental Health Day early, with the whole team wearing Mind’s badges at the Russian Grand Prix. In Russia, members of the garage team, who had to self-isolate in Australia, opened up on camera about the stresses and challenges of this experience and how they coped – the video has over 83k views. At the German Grand Prix (10-11th Oct), the drivers wore replicas of the helmets they painted and raffled for Mind in August. The McLaren MCL35 F1 car also featured additional Mind branding, including #WorldMentalHealthDay on the ‘halo’ above the drivers’ heads, raising further awareness with F1’s international audience. 

Vistry Partnerships took on one big challenge which saw employees - including the chief executives of Partnerships and parent company, Vistry Group - getting on their bikes from 1st to 10th October to take on the Vistry Velo virtual cycle challenge. Individuals and teams took on the distance between all of their offices (a massive 1,300km), raising 20,000 so far! 

River Island showed their support by launching their Comfort Layer campaign. They explored how we can break down the stigma that often surrounds mental health by revealing the person beneath their comfort layers, all whilst donating ￡2 from the sale of all adult winter coats to Mind between 28th September to 18th October. Their team, the public and ambassadors also shared their mental health stories. Hear Asha’s story below:

https://youtu.be/2Sn4v7Tjme4

Inspired by the connection between mental health and a good night's sleep, Benson’s for Beds also supported Mind's World Mental Health Day campaign. In addition to ￡10 from every Rollo mattress sold going to Mind, Bensons for Beds adverts on ITV featured the Mind logo last week to celebrate our partnership and encourage viewers to donate. As a result of Bensons for Bed’s partnership with Magic Radio, Mind’s Head of Information shared wellbeing tips with listeners throughout the week, and Bensons customers were also invited to take part in wellbeing polls on Instagram to inspire them to do one thing for their mental health.

The Bupa Foundation got creative, and asked people to write one thing. They launched a creative writing project for children and young people called ‘Beyond Words for World Mental Health Day’. Writing has so many benefits for our wellbeing and mental health, so the Bupa Foundation are encouraging young people to express their feelings about this year through stories, poems, spoken word, songs, comics or artwork on the theme of ‘My 2020’. From now until November, children and teenagers are being encouraged to submit their projects to an online hub and for each submission Mind will be receiving ￡1. 

And last but certainly not least, Co-op staff, customers and members alike fundraised for World Mental Health day by ‘Raising Their Game’, organising quizzes and games nights to connect with their communities. Join us for a wellbeing themed virtual quiz on 14th October or run your own using our free guide. Look out in Co-op stores for the 13 household brands that have already supported the partnership with ￡300,000 donated from the sales of their products, all for World Mental Health Day. Co-op are also raising awareness with their UK wide in-store radio, sharing information on mental wellbeing, encouraging fundraising and speaking about the impact of our partnership in local communities

Thank you so much to all of our partners featured here – and to every single one of our partners who have supported Mind this year! Your support has helped to raise awareness of mental health problems, encouraging people to do one thing for better mental health and helping to ensure that no one has to face a mental health problem alone.  

Making positive change can seem hard, especially during uncertain times. And sometimes, it can be hard to know where to start. But we’re here for you, whether you’ve been impacted by furlough, job losses or the pressures of being a key worker. We've put together advice and support for you and your team to help manage your wellbeing during these uncertain times.

If you would like to find out more about working with Mind, we would love to hear from you. You can find out more about how we work with our partners here: https://mind.org.uk/workplace/corporate-partnerships/. Or get in touch with the team at [email protected].