Topics for this month:

Mental Health Awareness Week: 13th-19th May
The Mental Health Foundation is the UK’s charity for everyone’s mental health. Last year the Mental Health Foundation found that 30% of all adults have felt so stressed about their body image and appearance that they felt overwhelmed and unable to cope. Body image issues can affect everyone at any age and directly impact on your mental health. As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, the Mental Health Foundation will be publishing the results of a UK-wide survey on body image and mental health and look at body image issues across a lifetime – including how it affects children and young people, adults and people in later life.

How to get involved!

Did you know?

  • 50% of mental health problems are established by the age of 14, and 75% by the age of 24
  • 300,000 people a year leave the workplace because of mental health problems
  • Depression affects around 22% of men and 28% of women aged 65 years and over

What is mindfulness and how can mindfulness help me?

More than ever, people are talking about mindfulness, but what is it and how could it help you?

Mindfulness can help you manage your wellbeing and mental health and it can enable you to:

✓ feel less overwhelmed

✓ improve your sleep quality

✓ positively change the way you think and feel about your experiences (especially stressful experiences)

✓ increase your ability to manage difficult situations

✓ make wiser choices

✓ reduce levels of anxiety

✓ reduce levels of depression

✓ reduce levels of stress

✓ reduce the amount you go over things in your mind

✓ have greater self-compassion

Mindfulness is not nonsense or silly, nor is it a passing fad – but it does take effort and work to develop mindfulness skills and time to practice them. The scientific evidence and clinical research that underpins mindfulness is strong and growing. It shows positive effects on several aspects of whole-person health, including the mind, the brain, the body and behaviour, as well as a person’s relationships with others.

Please visit https://bemindful.co.uk/ where you can find out more information about mindfulness, access online resources, and undertake a free stress test.

Online Fraud

Whilst we often highlight the importance of children and young people keeping themselves safe online through privacy settings, it is important that we raise awareness of online fraud and common scams that are being used. Online fraud is becoming increasingly common and sophisticated scams are taking thousands of pounds from innocent people.

Please see below 3 links that cover:

Samaritans and Social Media Giants in Communication

Representatives from social media giants Facebook, Google, Snapchat and Instagram have been summoned by the Government to meet with Samaritans this month over plans to rid the internet of content promoting self-harm videos and suicide.  The social media companies and the Government have been under pressure to act following the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell in 2017 when the schoolgirl’s family found material relating to depression and suicide when they looked at her Instagram account following her death.

In a statement, a spokesman for Facebook, which also owns Instagram, said: “The safety of people, especially young people, using our platforms is our top priority and we are continually investing in ways to ensure everyone on Facebook and Instagram has a positive experience”. “Most recently, as part of an ongoing review with experts, we have updated our policies around suicide, self-harm and eating disorder content so that more will be removed”.

“We also continue to invest in our team of 30,000 people working in safety and security, as well as technology, to tackle harmful content. We support the new initiative from the Government and the Samaritans, and look forward to our ongoing work with industry to find more ways to keep people safe online”.

For more information on the Samaritans and support they offer, please access: https://www.samaritans.org/wales/how-we-can-help/support-and-information/

Additional Resources

Attached to this bulletin are two different posters that staff, learners and employers can benefit from which cover British Values and also, Self-Harm. Click here for Self Harm poster
Click here for British Values poster

The team attended a training session delivered by Liverpool Children’s Safeguarding Board and CAMHS on ‘Awareness of Young People and Self-harm’, and the leaflet includes the main topics and discussions that took place during the training.

For more information on CAMHS and the support they provide, please visit:
https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/mental-health-services/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs/