Do One Thing: Martin

I’m Martin, Community Engagement Team Manager here at Manchester Mind.

For World Mental Health Day I have been thinking about how experience of the lockdowns made me reflect on its impact on my closest community, my family.

My eldest daughters are privileged that they are able to attend a high achieving school, but that brings its own challenges of unrelenting pressure to attain at a constant high standard, which has had a noticeable impact on their mental health at certain times.

As lockdowns brought us all into the same close-knit environment for months on end, we had to learn to separate time, activities and space to create new healthy routines. This particularly enabled us to remind ourselves of the value of leisure time, both personal and communal. We connected as a family that we have maintained to this day.

Most importantly for my teenage daughters, it allowed them to step back from the risks of poor mental health due to their education demands, to enjoy their learning but also to enjoy personal and family time on their terms, with reduced traditional teenage reluctance.

So on World Mental Health Day we will keep to our simple routines that promote and preserve the value in our family: leisurely breakfast together whilst Zoom calling family who live apart from us; shared lunch, maybe a bike ride and film night to finish.

All simple things, but it gives us all a chance to value each other, decompress from a previous busy week, and be recharged ready for whatever comes our way in the week ahead.

We are marking the event by encouraging you to “Do One Thing” to support your own mental health and for the mental health of those around us. Read through some of our suggested things and don’t forget to share your #DoOneThing with us if you can.