Mental Health Awareness Week
As part of Mental Health Awareness Week (12 to 18 May) Shropshire Council is sharing awareness of local offers and resources that can support residents with their emotional wellness and to thrive.
Local Offers
TogetherAll: An online peer support community for any Shropshire resident aged 16 and above who is stressed, anxious or feeling low. The service has an active forum with round-the-clock support from trained professionals. You can talk anonymously and confidentially to other members. Sign up for free at: www.togetherall.com/
- TogetherAll is for anyone aged 16 or over who wants to improve their mental health
- The TogetherAll community is completely anonymous so you can express yourself freely and openly
- Express your feelings by creating a brick using words, pictures and images and adding it to the community wall
- Take online tests to measure your anxiety or depression levels to set goals and track your progress
- Register for free self-guided online courses covering topics such as sleep problems, stopping smoking, stress and worry, social anxiety and anger management
Healthy Lives Social Prescribing: Social prescribing gives people time to talk, one to one, with a trained healthy lives advisor to come up with a plan of action together, to help improve health and wellbeing concerns and put the person back in charge of their life.
Our Healthy Lives advisor might introduce you to a community group, a new activity or a local club, or they might help you find advice or debt counselling. They might just help you find information and guidance: a bit of inside knowledge on your situation or what local resources there are. They could even support you to create something new such as a gardening club, a fishing group, a ‘men’s shed’ or knit and knatter group.
They can support you with losing weight, being more active or stopping smoking, if that’s something you’d like to do. Social prescribing can help you to have more control over your own health and find ways to improve how you feel in a way that suits you. Further details can be found here: Social prescribing | Shropshire Council
Community & Family Hubs: Community hubs bring together the community, health and voluntary sectors so that residents can access services and activities that empower them to live their best lives. You can find a wide range of activities and support services in Shropshire’s community hubs, including early help for families, domestic abuse support, help to stop smoking, information about housing and much more, for all ages. Currently at our Hubs there are many all age health and wellbeing service offers including, Mental Health Drop-in Sessions, yoga, meditation, reflexology taster sessions, singing, crafting and board games to name a few. The link to the Community & Family Hub offers is available on our website: Community hubs | Shropshire Council
Farmer and Rural Health Checks at Livestock Auctions Health Checks: During the month of May, the Shropshire Public Health Community Wellbeing Outreach team will be at a number of livestock auctions across Shropshire to deliver health checks (dates and locations below).
Health checks are designed to assess the risk of potential medical conditions that we could develop, and spot any warning signs that we might not have noticed ourselves. By detecting these warning signs early on, you can reduce your risk of health problems such as kidney disease, stroke, heart disease, type 2 diabetes or dementia – and the earlier your risk is detected, the easier it is to act upon.
Sessions include a free blood pressure check, options to check cholesterol and diabetes as well as a number of other factors. The health check also provides opportunity to talk in private about any other health and wellbeing concerns. The team are able to lend a listening ear and signpost services which might be helpful. These health checks are delivered by the Shropshire Public Health Community Wellbeing Outreach team.
| Location | Date | Time |
| Bridgnorth | 13th May | 10.00 – 2pm |
| Oswestry | 21st May | 10.30 – 2pm |
| Ludlow | 23rd May | 10.00 – 2pm |
| Bishops Castle | 29th May | 10.00 – 2pm |
Healthy Shropshire Mental Health webpage: Mental health | Shropshire Council – a range of resources, details on local offers and useful links for managing mental health concerns
First Point of Contact Resource Pack to support mental health and wellbeing (and wider factors such as bereavement, supported employment, people with health and social care needs, impacted by abuse, support for children and young people and carers): Available online here PowerPoint Presentation
Support for People Affected by Suicide: If you are someone you know has been having thoughts of suicide, help is available. The Pick up the phone you are not alone resource (available at pick-up-phone-z-card-single-pages.pdf) has brief advice and local contacts who can support. For Wider support or advice available 24/7 can be contacted from the agencies in the attached document (247 Support for Thoughts of Suicide). These include;
- Text SHOUT to 85258 (available 24/7). UK crisis text service available for times when people feel they need immediate support.
- Samaritans, 24/7 – Call 116 123
- Papyrus Hopeline247 – If you are having thoughts of suicide or are www.papyrus-uk.org/papyrus-HOPELINE247 concerned for someone else. Call: 0800 068 4141 Text: 07860 039967
- FREEPHONE 24/7 Urgent NHS Mental Health Helpline 0808 196 4501 or email [email protected]
