Mental Health Awareness Week 2023
This is Mental Health Awareness Week 2023, with the theme this year being anxiety. This is something to which we can all relate, as we all feel anxiety at some point. With anxiety being part of a natural response to uncertainty, the past few years have provided many reasons for people to be anxious.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a major new source of uncertainty for everyone, and with it came a lack of contact with others that meant that help with anxiety was harder to find. The war in Ukraine brings specific anxieties for those directly involved, as well as a much more uncertain world scene for everyone. The financial pressures brought about by the current cost of living crisis also feed into the environment of uncertainty, making fertile ground for feelings of anxiety to take hold.
Laptops4Learning was born out of the uncertainty of the pandemic, when lockdowns and social distancing highlighted the importance of digital inclusion for connection, communication and participation. As our work has continued to expand, many of the groups that we help, such as refugees, vulnerable young people and adults, the homeless and the isolated elderly, are bound together with a common thread of uncertainty and anxiety. Digital inclusion is just one tool to help, but it is part of a much wider picture of mental health awareness. The Mental Health Foundation, who run Mental Health Awareness week, have provided the below suggestions for things that may help cope with anxiety. This is a good time for us all to focus on our mental well-being and look out for others as well.
Paul B Gregg Laptops4Learning 16/05/23
