Every year, thousands of supporters across the UK take part in Mental Health Awareness Week. This year the week will take place from 8th-14th May on the theme of surviving or thriving?

Good mental health is more than the absence of a mental health problem. This year, rather than ask why so many people are living with mental health problems, we will seek to uncover why too few of us are thriving with good mental health.

Hold an event

Think about ways you can bring people together and start conversations around mental health. Some suggestions could be to:

Host a wellbeing walk – with friends, colleagues or people in your community. Set up a stand in your local hospital, community centre, library or supermarket. Hold a series of lectures or talks on mental health – make it interactive as possible and get the audience involved!

Our fundraising team have got you covered with more event ideas for the workplace, schools and your communities. Don’t forget to add your event to our activity map – you can also see what other people are planning during the week.

Spread the word

During the week we will be posting stories and information on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Please follow us to help us share our messages and to join in the discussion. You can also let us know what you’re getting up to by using the tag #MHAW17.

Share your story

If you have a personal story about surviving or thriving and would like to share it with us, please send through 400 words to stories@mentalhealth.org.uk.

We all have mental health. Good mental health is an asset that helps us to thrive. This is not just the absence of a mental health problem, but having the ability to think, feel and act in a way that allows us to enjoy life and deal with the challenges it presents. Yet it can be easy to assume that ongoing stress is the price we have to pay to keep our lives on track. It is time to challenge that assumption.

In March 2017, commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation, NatCen conducted a survey amongst its panel members in England, Scotland and Wales. This aimed to understand the prevalence of self-reported mental health problems, levels of positive and negative mental health in the population, and the actions people take to deal with the stressors in their lives. 2,290 interviews were completed, with 82% online and 18% by phone.

Key findings

• Only a small minority of people (13%) report living with high levels of good mental health.
• People over the age of 55 report experiencing better mental health than average.
• People aged 55 and above are the most likely to take positive steps to help themselves deal better with everyday life – including spending time with friends and family, going for a walk, spending more time on interests, getting enough sleep, eating healthily and learning new things.
• More than 4 in 10 people say they have experienced depression
• Over a quarter of people say they have experienced panic attacks.
• The most notable differences are associated with household income and economic activity – nearly 3 in 4 people living in the lowest household income bracket report having exprienced a mental health problem, compared to 6 in 10 of the highest household income bracket.
• The great majority (85%) of people out of work have experienced a mental health problem compared to two thirds of people in work and just over half of people who have retired.
• Nearly two-thirds of people say that they have experienced a mental health problem. This rises to 7 in every 10 women, young adults aged 18-34 and people living alone.