Mental Health Awareness Week 2011

For Mental Health Awareness Week 2011 (10-16 October), SAMH called on people across Scotland to share with us their experiences of mental health and their ideas to improve Scotland's mental wellbeing.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2011 - ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTION

Mental Health Awareness Week (10-16 October) saw SAMH talking about mental health across Scotland, through an exciting array of events, media and online activity. Here, you can read a day-to-day account of what we got up to across the country. Next year, we'll build on this work to make Mental Health Awareness Week bigger and better!

MONDAY

On Monday, we called on people across Scotland to help us create an effective, innovative new strategy for Scotland's mental health. You can still make your contribution to this work here.

Monday saw the launch of our new Twitter feed, an exciting new way for SAMH to talk about mental health with people in Scotland. You can follow us on Twitter here.

As part of our Get Active programme, we held a special event to launch our new film promoting our Branching Out conservation project, run in partnership with The Forestry Commission.

Niall Iain Macdonald, who will be making a solo, cross-Atlantic rowing voyage to raise money for SAMH, began his tour of Scotland. The tour, which saw Niall Iain visit a different city every day, gave the public the chance to see his boat, ask him questions about the voyage and donate to this incredible project. You can read more about Niall Iain's voyage, NY2SY, here.

TUESDAY

On Tuesday, global cyclist Abi Wingate, who is cycling from Thailand to Edinburgh to raise money for SAMH, reached an incredible milestone on her journey. After cycling more than 8,000 miles, Abi began her last 1,000 miles home, which will take her through North East Europe and over the water the UK. You can follow her progress and donate to the project here.

Back in Glasgow, our Get Active programme held a special tennis taster session at Kelvingrove Park, as part of a series of special sports events for Mental Health Awareness Week.

THURSDAY

On Thursday, we held a special celebration for the Scotland Homeless World Cup Team, who were victorious at this year's international tournament in Paris. Robert Hare, Scotland Team Captain, was sponsored by SAMH in the tournament.

Robert had spoken at a Parliamentary Reception the previous week about how his involvement in the team had helped his recovery, and SAMH were proud to congratulate him and the rest of the team on their victory.

FRIDAY

On Friday, we launched our third SAMH Resource Centre in Scotland. The new centre in Angus was launched with a special event attended by the Depute Lord Provost, local MSP Nigel Don and Radio Tay DJ John Milne.

The Angus Resource Centre, which joins the SAMH Borders Resource Centre and the flagship centre in Glasgow's Merchant City, will provide to the public a comprehensive range of information on mental health issues and provide signposting to local mental health services. You can find out more about our Resource Centres here.

SUNDAY

On Sunday, SAMH's Get Active programme, which promotes the links between physical activity and mental health, and SAMH's Respectme anti-bullying programme, announced their official partnership with the Scottish Rugby League, at half time during the Scotland vs Ireland test match.

This marks the beginning of an active partnership between SAMH and the Scottish Rugby League and you can find out about the partnership's future events and activities on our website.

TAKE ACTION NOW

THE FUTURE OF SCOTLAND'S MENTAL HEALTH

The Scottish Government has announced a new Mental Health Strategy for Scotland, which, for the next four years, will help shape the way Scotland approaches mental health. The Government is asking for the public, charities and medical professionals to tell them what a new Mental Health Strategy should set out to change and how it should do it.

We are asking everyone in Scotland to seize this opportunity and share with us their experiences of mental health and their ideas for how to improve Scotland's mental wellbeing. If the new Mental Health Strategy is to be effective, it must be based on the real experiences of real people.

MENTAL HEALTH: THE FOUNDATION STONE

SAMH believes that good mental health is the foundation stone of Scotland. Too often, mental health has been seen as an NHS issue - but it's about so much more than that. Mental health is at the core of Scotland's wellbeing. Without good mental health, Government strategies on education, employment, criminal justice and poverty just cannot succeed.

A new Mental Health Strategy for Scotland should go beyond the NHS and aim to make real changes to mental health in education, communities, policing, housing, employment, social care and human rights. You can read our recommendations here.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

So we want to hear about your experiences and ideas about mental health in day to day life, whether it relates to your mental health at work, or at school, college or university. Maybe you want to tell us about mental health and housing, or your experience of mental health in another aspect of your life.

However mental health has affected you, we want to hear about it. And there are lots of ways to tell us:

WEB SURVEY

We are running a web survey to find out about people's experiences of mental health in Scotland. The anonymous survey asks questions about mental health in various aspects of people's lives.

Your contribution will help us tell the Scottish Government how mental health affects real people's lives.

TWITTER

You can follow us on our brand new Twitter @SAMHtweets and use it to tell us what you want from the strategy.

EMAIL

And of course, you can email us at policy@samh.org.uk

WRITE TO YOUR MSP

You can also respond directly to the consultation or write to your MSP.  We have made it easy for you to contact your MSP about the new Mental Health Strategy. Simply go to our Lobbying Letter, choose your political constituency, and change the letter to say what you want. Remember: it's your MSP's job to represent your views in Parliament. You can find out your MSP constituency at Aboutmyvote.com.