We had a large central stand in the Nicholson’s Shopping Centre. This consisted of a ‘1 in 4 ‘ exhibition of famous people and their comments about mental health / ill health, including Stephen Fry, ‘Sting’ and Daniel Bedingfield.

Chatting with the public

A team of professionals from Step Forward, The Community Mental Health Team, Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service, New voice and Connexions were able to give information and advice to the 141 people who approached the stand for support. The majority of these proved to be in-depth discussions of between ten and twenty minutes.

We gave out ‘Stress Cards' and 'Stress Dots’ which proved very popular with the public and were a great ‘ice-breaker’ and enabled us to immediately discuss how people coped with their stress and consequently looked after their mental health.

The most innovative part of the event was the powerful drama that was performed throughout the day.  It was about an ordinary couple who, as a result of events in their lives, were suffering from mental ill health.  They discuss how it has affected them and can each tell the other the strategies they could use to improve their mental wellbeing but neither can see it for themselves.

We used ‘The Doorway to Good Mental Health’, as an eye catching prop in the drama and was another opportunity to inform with six ways to look after your mental wellbeing in each panel of the door.

We were very grateful for the support of Theresa May MP who visited us during the day, as did the local press.

We had eleven organisations with promotional stands including Advocacy, Step Forward and The Princess Royal Trust.

Margaret Cubley, Mayor

We used prominent co-ordinated ‘skirts’ around all the promotional tables and wore matching sashes to promote our message.

40,132 people walked past our stands during the day!

We also provided shoulder, neck and back massages, nail art, manicures and hand and arm massages from the thirty students and their tutor who supported us from East Berkshire College.   Blood pressure checks were also offered and finally children were catered for with face painting, which looked at emotions in line with the theme of the day.

Over a 1,000 people consulted with our team, the greatest number of people ever reached through World Mental Health Day in our locality, proving we were able to bring mental health successfully onto ‘the high street’.

One of the Stands

Magaret Cubley, The Mayor for The Royal Borough and her Consort showed their genuine interest and support by spending most of the afternoon at the event, which was very much appreciated.