Mental Health Awareness Week 2022

As we have done for many years, this week we have marked Mental Health Awareness Week at Speed with a series of activities aimed to bring our team together and remind everyone of the importance of taking time for personal wellbeing.

The theme this year has been about loneliness, something that the majority of people will have experienced or been touched by in the last couple of years, if not before. The Mental Health Foundation quotes that 1 in 5 people have hidden their feelings of loneliness, so this year’s campaign has been all about raising awareness that people suffering with loneliness, are not alone.
We have taken the opportunity to connect our Speedsters both by bringing them together physically but also through sharing and collaborating on ideas for supporting our wellbeing and addressing what to do if you are feeling lonely.

Activities have included:

• A workshop for the team to review current wellbeing initiatives and look at what else we could implement
• Sharing resources from well know organisations to educate on loneliness and look at how to manage the feelings
• A newly launched Time off for Volunteering policy to allow our Speedsters gifted time to support a charity that is important to them
• Next week we are hosting a team quiz to bring everyone together and raise money for local loneliness charity, Marmalade Trust

We also asked our Speedsters to share their own ideas and advice of what they do to manage lonely feelings. Here are five of our team’s top tips:

• Get outdoors and mix with people
• Do some exercise, even if it’s a walk
• Give my dog a cuddle
• Watch some comedy – laughter always cheers me up!
• Stay away from scrolling social media as it makes me feel more lonely

We are committed to supporting our team’s wellbeing all year around, and have a range of support in place for the team as well as being part of the Mental Health at Work Commitment, which is backed by mental health charity Mind.

For more information about how you can get involved in Mental Health Awareness Week visit https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week