As we celebrate World Mental Health Day, the Department for Health and Social Care have launched its latest Every Mind Matters campaign, which is urging people to do the little things that can make a big difference to their mental wellbeing.
The campaign comes after new research commissioned by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities found that 67% of the British public regularly experience the ‘Sunday Scaries’ – a figure that rises to a worrying 74% when we look at those aged between 18-24 specifically.
The public reported that work-induced stress, a lack of sleep, and “looming” to-do-lists were the main causes of anxiety on a Sunday.
The ‘Sunday Scaries’ peak just after 5pm with many people envisaging a stressful week ahead – it’s been found that Google searches around sadness spike on Sunday with searches for ‘trouble sleeping’ also peaking on a Monday, painting a picture of the nation’s struggles with anxiety and insomnia.
As part of their attempts to stave off the Sunday blues, young people aged between 18-24 are most likely to scroll social media, whilst those between 25-32 will probably binge watch TV, and those aged between 33-40 are more likely to comfort eat.
In a bid to solve this anxiety epidemic, the Government’s new mental health campaign will look to provide everyone with a ‘Mind Plan’ that will give them personlised tips and tricks to help them deal with stress, boost their morale, sleep better, and ultimately give them the tools to keep their Sunday dread at bay.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Thérèse Coffey, said: “My focus is on making sure people can get the care they need, when they need it – and that includes for their mental wellbeing. The Every Mind Matters tool is a great way to build your mental resilience and help ward off the anxiety many of us feel on a Sunday.”
The Government say that this latest Every Mind Matters campaign “is an important tool for early intervention to build mental resilience” and that preventing the public’s mental health from further decaying is part of their Plan for Patients.
More than four million unique Mind Plans have been issued since the campaign’s initial launch in the October of 2019 and the Every Mind Matters website hosts a range of additional resources to help keep your mental health in check.
Whilst this plan has been endorsed by various public figures, including radio presenter Vick Hope, TV personality Scarlett Moffatt, and singer Tom Grennan, the NHS Confederation has urged the Government to go “further”, describing the omission of a 10-year mental health plan as “worryingly absent” from Thérèse Coffey’s new priority list.
Chief executive of the NHS Confederation’s mental health network, Sean Duggan, said: “While we welcome the launch of this campaign ahead of World Mental Health Day, mental health leaders would urge the government to go much further and set out a clear commitment to improving the mental health of the nation.
“The previous government had committed to publishing a 10-year plan for mental health, however mental health is worryingly absent from the new Secretary of State’s ‘ABCD’ priority list for the NHS.
“Yet mental health services are buckling under the strain of a mental health backlog which now stands at 1.6 million people and rising, combined with significant staffing gaps in the mental health workforce.
“Without a clear roadmap for mental health services for the months and years ahead, a generation of people risk not being able to access the services they need for support at the time they need them most.”
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