Overcome anxiety event for Mental Health Awareness Week
Feeling stressed or anxious? Come along to a session in St Helens town centre on how you can cope and what support is available.
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Article date: 11th May 2023
This Mental Health Awareness Week (15th to 21st of May) we want to share a message about building hope and getting help and support. St Helens Borough Council will be hosting an event which will focus on ways to cope with anxiety, how to support friends and family members who experience anxiety and share what support is out there.
The Overcoming Anxiety community event will take place on Monday 15th May to start the week with a range of initiatives, classes and support from organisations across the borough to support people living with anxiety. The event will be held at St Helens Parish Church, Church Square from 11am until 3pm.
Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems we can face. Lots of things can lead to feelings of anxiety, including exam pressures, relationships, starting a new job (or losing one) or other big life events. We can also get anxious when it comes to things to do with money and not being able to meet our basic needs, like heating our home or buying food.
Councillor Anthony Burns, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing, Culture and Heritage, said: "This Mental Health Awareness Week's message that there is hope. Looking after our own mental wellbeing means focusing on the present and looking forward to the future, building on what we each need as individuals to be resilient and having coping mechanisms in place to deal with the setbacks that life can throw at us all, which so often impact on our mental health.
"Anxiety is something that people don't always link to mental health, whether they might think being stressed is natural, but there is much that you can do to help you understand the triggers and ways to deal with the impact in a positive way which you can find out more at this event."
The week is also an opportunity for people to think about how they can support others . One way to do this is by becoming a Mental Health First Aider. The Mental Health First Aider programme is ideal for anyone who could offer support through community groups or their workplaces. Timely mental health support is a key to help communities maintain good wellbeing.
Training to become a Mental Health First Aider is easy with online training over two days delivered by live sessions with an instructor and self-learning activities that focus on developing practical skills to spot triggers and signs of mental health issues, build confidence to support someone in distress and how to guide them to help for recovery.
To find out more or book a place email St Helens Wellbeing Service chcp.sthelens@nhs.net or call Lynn Saunders or Rob Alcock on 01744 371111.
For more information on mental health support visit https://sthelens.gov.uk/mentalhealth