Columnist

Make time to talk about mental health

Thursday, October 10 marks World Mental Health Day, writes Matthew Smith, co-founder of mental health and suicide prevention charity If U Care Share.

It is an important day in the calendar, and a great opportunity to start conversations about mental health which can save lives.

It should also be an opportunity to prepare to do the same things to look after your mental health for the next 364 days.

Mental health, like physical health, is something that affects us every day.

And there are five key things we can do daily to improve our wellbeing:

·      Connect

·      Be active

·      Keep learning

·      Be mindful

·      Give 

These should be the daily touch points, the reminders.

And today just might be the inspiration for somebody to start.

This is something we encourage in our workshops with businesses, schools and Premier League and EFL football academies; how can you engrain these five things in your normal life?

It isn’t going to make you happy all the time, but it will give you the coping strategies when life is difficult, and when your mental health is being challenged.

And although mental health is complicated, and for all the new fads, it comes back to getting the fundamentals right.

Are you sleeping?

Are you eating and drinking the right things?

Are you exercising?

Are you communicating with people?

World Mental Health Day is also an opportunity for mental health charities like If U Care Share to highlight the lack of funding for non-for-profit services in the UK.

Suicide rates last year were the highest since the mid-90s – it is the number one killer among young men and women – and yet funding has been drastically cut at local and national level.

This is probably one of the most challenging times we've faced dealing with suicide and trying to support people affected.

Based on those statistics, we should be expanding our services.

But we'll have to reduce them, and instead of increasing our preventative work and upskilling and increasing our staff, we must balance our finances to provide support staff for the rising number of families and friends affected by suicide.

Every time one person dies by suicide, 135 people – family, friends, work colleagues and emergency services – are impacted.

That is why we launched Mission 135, and why I ran to every Premier League ground in August – aiming to raise £135,000 so we can keep helping communities.

We still want to reach that target.

Matthew Smith is co-founder of mental health and suicide prevention charity If U Care Share

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