Mims Davies MP is proud to support Mental Health Awareness Week - an annual event designed to inform and empower people and communities to take action for mentally healthier lives. In its 23rd year, it is the largest campaign of its like in the UK. It is organised by the Mental Health Foundation, which works to prevent mental health problems and drive change towards a mentally healthy society for all.
Ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week, Mims Davies MP commented:
I am proud to support Mental Health Awareness Week, which inspires people to believe that they can see change in their lives for the better. From my own experience, I know that the stigma often associated with loneliness can make it hard to reach out for help. I commend organisations such as the Mental Health Foundation for their pivotal role in supporting community projects that tackle loneliness and support people with anxiety. We can all be part of this change towards a mentally healthier society. By coming together, we can tackle loneliness and anxiety.
As a local MP and former Minister for Loneliness, Mims has been a vocal advocate for greater investment in mental health support - including initiatives which help to tackle loneliness and anxiety. She recently welcomed the launch of a call for evidence to inform the development of a new cross-government, 10-year plan to improve mental health. The consultation sought views on how to improve mental health services and understand the causes of mental ill-health.
It will build on action already underway, which includes the commitment to invest an extra £2.3 billion a year in mental health services by 2023-24. The Government has also invested almost £50 million in tackling loneliness since 2018 and supports a Tackling Loneliness Hub to help organisations share and learn from best practice.
Mims’ personal experiences of loneliness and anxiety, both through her work as a constituency MP and her own life, are helping her to shape her approach to raising awareness to these issues in Westminster. She spent years helping her mother care for her father, who spent 25 years at home in need of support after an accident at work.
Sharing her own experiences, Mims revealed:
I helped my mum as she got more aged and then ended up at a various points with them and my young children - and it was then that I recognised that my mum felt very isolated, as she didn’t have the respite.
My dad had sight problems, so by the end wasn’t able to be left alone at home. And I think that he felt very isolated too. He got involved in art projects with Headway to get out and about and met people, and she had a bit of a break.
Sometimes you’re in it and you don’t realise that you are, and I think that the whole campaign that we’re responding to allows people to recognise that.
For more information about this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, please visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week or join the conversation on social media using #IveBeenThere and #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek.
