Mental Health Awareness Week is taking place Monday 10-16th May 2021. This year the theme is nature.
Research from the Mental Health Foundation on impacts of lockdown showed that spending time in nature was on of the most popular coping strategies, and 45% of people reported that spending time in nature was vital for their mental health during this time.
This years theme aims to encourage people to not only spend time in nature, but also to actively engage with nature and to notice the positive impacts that this can have on their mental health. It also aims to raise the issue of access to high quality nature as a social justice issue as well as an environmental one.
The Mental Health Foundation have released some top tips on how we can connect with nature to improve our mental health. Perhaps you could discuss these ideas with your class and think about how you can use these tips throughout Mental Health Awareness Week at your school:
- Find nature wherever you are.
- Connect with nature using all of your senses.
- Get out into nature.
- Bring nature to you.
- Exercise in nature.
- Combine nature with creativity.
- Protect nature.
Check out the top tips for connecting with nature to improve our mental health here.
Throughout May, OpenView Education will be visiting schools with our Mental Health & Wellbeing Workshops. In these interactive workshops students will learn how they can apply the 5 Ways to Wellbeing to promote positive mental health.
During Mental Health Awareness, remember to post on Twitter about the activities that are taking place at your school, you can use the tags #ConnectWithNature and #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek.
