Men’s Minds Matter – Promoting Mental Health Awareness Week
The Young Employee Network (YEN) and Employee Healthcare recently joined forces to bring ‘Men’s Minds Matter’ to all council and KNH staff members in order to promote Mental Health Awareness week.
What was the event about?
The event took place 7th May at the Lawrence Batley Theatre with a fitting theatrical twist and a particular focus on the importance of encouraging men to talk about how they are feeling to overcome the ‘man up’ attitude.
What happened at the event?
The event featured a powerful and thought provoking performance from the ‘Men’s talk’ theatre group and an incredibly moving presentation from the ‘Luke’s Lads’ men’s mental health charity. Both of which left the room taken back and emotional.
What was the result from the event?
The result was an amazing response from the event attendees (our employees) where several members of the audience openly discussed and shared personal experiences of mental ill health and how they have dealt with it for themselves and family members – to a room full of people! This created a really positive and understanding atmosphere where we took another vital step to breaking the stigma surrounding mental illness.
Many constructive questions asked
There was also many constructive questions asked surrounding what is actually available to Kirklees and KNH employees within the organisation to help its employees with their wellbeing and how to actually go about supporting your colleagues if you thought somebody was a bit down.
What else happened at the event?
The event was then wrapped up by Deborah Lucas (Head of People Services) who shared some words about the importance for raising mental health awareness.
Thank you to everyone who attended!
YEN and Employee Healthcare were astonished with the positive feedback received and would like to thank all who helped to make this event a success. This includes all our stall holders (Andy’s Mans club, CLEAR, Mental health Champions, FINE, Employee Health care ,the library’s and KAL – who offer a free 5 day pass to use in any of their sites) and everyone who took the time to come along to support mental health awareness.
More information
If you missed the event and want more information about ‘Luke’s Lads’ and ’Butterflies’ (who offer free gym sessions to over 16’s in Heckmondwike and a safe place to talk about mental health concerns) you can visit their website.
To find out more information about ‘Luke’s Lads’ ,click here.
To find out more information about ’Butterflies’, click here.