Mental Health Awareness Week 13th - 19th May

Who we are

The Mental Health Foundation is the UK’s charity for everyone’s mental health. With prevention at the heart of what we do, we aim to find and address the sources of mental health problems.

We have over 70 years of experience and expertise working towards a world with good mental health for all.

Read more about our innovative programmes, national campaigns and transformative mental health research:

Our work

What is Mental Health Awareness Week?

Mental health problems can affect anyone, at any time. We believe that mental health is everyone’s business.

So for one week each May, we campaign around a specific theme for Mental Health Awareness Week.

Since our first Mental Health Awareness Week in 2001, we’ve raised awareness of topics like stress, relationships, loneliness, sleep, alcohol and friendship.

Hundreds of schools, businesses and communities have come together to start conversations around mental health that can change and even save lives.

This year, with your support, we want to reach more people than ever.

13-19 May 2019: Body image – how we feel and think about our bodies

Last year we found that 30% of all adults have felt so stressed by body image and appearance that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. That’s almost 1 in every 3 people.

Body image issues can affect all of us at any age and directly impact our mental health.

However there is still a lack of much-needed research and understanding around this.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week:

• We will be publishing the results of a UK-wide survey on body image and mental health.
• We will look at body image issues across a lifetime – including how it affects children and young people, adults and people in later life.
• We will also highlight how people can experience body image issues differently, including people of different ages, genders, ethnicities and sexualities.
• We will use our research to continue campaigning for positive change and publish practical tools to help improve the nation’s relationship with their bodies.

The good news is that we can tackle body image through what children are taught in schools, by the way we talk about our bodies on a daily basis and through policy change by governments across the UK.

For more information or access to support visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk

Updated 19:55 - 29 Aug 2019 by Stefan Rance