On Wednesday 11th May I and Steve Hardy were invited to give a presentation at Advocacy for All ‘Big Mental Health Day’. We also had a stall at the event with Jill Davies and Kane Thomsett from the MHiLD team of Bromley CLDT. They were giving out loads of information about mental health and we were promoting ‘Peter and Friends’.
Our presentation was about mental health and the role of advocates. The presentation was very well received by the audience. We said that mental health is like a rollercoaster - some days you are happy (high) and some days you are sad (low). These are normal emotions but the poignant point is that your mental health is as important as physical health and both are connected.
A quote from Jill:
It was a great opportunity to catchup with people I hadn't seen in some time, as well as meet people who had an interest in reducing their levels of anxiety.
We hope to work with Bromley together again - the event was a good chance to place faces with the names.
I loved the afternoon workshops and particularly enjoyed the yoga workshop, it was so relaxing.
A quote from Kane:
The day was a very fun day for all and allowed us to engage with a wider population of those who are not know to us. It was refreshing to witness and take part in such an inclusive and positive event.
A lot of those we spoke to hand some level of understanding of what mental health was and through discussion, had explained their own strategies to improve their own mental health.
The workshops were fantastic, educational and some created laughter and joy. Especially the "having a voice workshop".
After lunch we had to wake up with singing and dancing to some famous upbeat songs like ‘Reach for the star’ by S-Club 7 and ‘Firework’s’ by Katy Perry. We then spoke to lots of people at our stall. Jill and Kane gave helpful advice on staying mentally well, medication and how the team can help. We talked about covid, surviving the pandemic and the new volume of ‘Peter and Friends - our mental health’. We also held a free raffle with the prize being ‘Peter and friends talk about covid-19 and having a learning disability’.
We then had a choice of workshops to attend like having a voice, yoga and coping with stress. We found these workshops very informative and a great opportunity to have discussion. The day was finished with everyone practicing relaxation and a talk by Jan Donnelly.
We greatly enjoyed being in the Bromley Community House and meeting all of the great people who attended the event. We would like to finish this blog for giving a massive thank you to Advocacy for All and especially Jan Donnelly!
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