Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 at In-House Legal Solutions.

‘Wear it Green day’!

What is Mental Health Awareness Week?

Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual campaign which ultimately aims to raise awareness and promote mental health education and well-being. This year, the initiative ran from 15^th to 21^st May 2023 and there was a focus on anxiety as the chosen theme. As part of the initiative, open discussions about mental health were encouraged with the aim to reduce stigma, and information and support was provided to those experiencing mental health issues.

As previously mentioned, there was a great focus on anxiety as the chosen theme for this year’s campaign. This focus aimed to increase people’s awareness and understanding of anxiety by providing information on what can help prevent it from becoming a problem. According to the NHS Information page, “anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe” and affect us physically and mentally. The Mental Health Foundation have found that anxiety is becoming more prevalent and published an array of blogs covering the topic of anxiety as a support mechanism for those who may be struggling. These blogs were extremely useful resources when exploring the ways in which In-House Legal Solutions can get involved with Mental Health Awareness Week 2023.

According to Alexa Knight, Director of England at The Mental Health Foundation [April 2023], the reason for anxiety as the chosen theme for 2023 was “to kickstart a nationwide conversation, encouraging people to share their own experiences and any helpful ideas on how they manage anxiety”.

At In-House Legal Solutions, we recognise the important of this topic, and participated in several activities as a team to get involved with this campaign and help raise awareness.

Mental Health Awareness week at In-House Legal Solutions:

Shivani, a trainee solicitor and one of the Champions for Mental Health and Well-being at In-House Legal Solutions, held a well-being morning on Thursday 18^th May 2023, whereby the team got together for tea, coffee and pastries whilst listening to a presentation made by Shivani on this year’s topic – anxiety.

During this presentation, we discussed ways in which we can manage our anxiety, whether it be related to work or personal life, and the team came up with some great techniques which can help to reduce stress. The team also discussed factors which may trigger anxiety, and identified how we may be able to prevent these triggers from occurring in the workplace. Ultimately, this session delivered by Shivani was extremely beneficial to the team at In-House Legal Solutions and acted as an ideal way to kickstart conversations within our team about our personal experiences with anxiety and how we tend to manage it.

Shivani educated the team on ways in which we can reduce stress and encouraged us to participate in colouring activities to decrease our stress levels. This was a fun activity, and the team produced some colourful work! Furthermore, we gathered at lunch time up on the rooftop terrace at the Tempest Building. This activity was a great way to socialise out of the office and talk amongst ourselves.

Overall, the team at In-House Legal Solutions had lots of fun throughout the Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 and enjoyed raising awareness for anxiety and well-being during our ‘Wear it Green Day’. It was incredibly refreshing to discuss the aforementioned topics of mental health and anxiety, and the team feel that they benefitted from the dedicated session on anxiety as there were lots of open discussions which encouraged everyone to get involved.