Celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week

To celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week (9-15 May), SHC decided to walk to raise funds for our chosen charity Mid-Kent MIND.

Mid-Kent Mind work in the community to promote social inclusion for people who experience mental health problems. The charity strives to tackle stigma and discrimination through a number of projects that promote a better understanding of mental health.

“On Friday 13th May, some of the SHC team met at Sandridge Village Hall, near St Albans, Hertfordshire,” says Suzanne Howe. “The weather was glorious, and we enjoyed a great walk in and around the beautiful Heartwood Forest. We were joined by Lola and Louis, our four-legged friends!

“While the main purpose was to raise funds for Mid-Kent MIND, the added benefit was the joy of just being able to get together. The SHC team has functioned brilliantly over the past two years – through various lockdowns – via regular company and client Teams meetings, but we had all been missing actually being together and being able to chat about more than just business.

“The pandemic changed our approach to client management and we increased the frequency of Teams meetings. This has resulted in a closer and improved working relationship with our clients, plus saved goodness knows how much fuel and downtime by not travelling around the country to meetings. While we have started attending trade shows to support our clients and will still visit them from time to time as required, to maintain efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint, Teams and Zoom meetings will remain as our primary way of working with our clients and reporting our success.

“It is rather appropriate that one of the key elements of the work of our chosen charity is to encourage free and open discussion, as that is often the first step in addressing mental health issues. After too many months of not actually being in the same place, the SHC team had plenty to chat about!”

“One in four of us are likely to experience a mental health problem each year. The support of organisations like Suzanne Howe Communications makes a huge difference to the work we can do to support people when they are in need,” says Mid-Kent MIND Communications and Fundraising Manager Tom Fishenden. “As a local branch of MIND, we don’t receive any statutory funding – so the support from our community is crucial. The pandemic has made many of us aware of just how important mental health is – with many more people now reaching out to ask for help, and access support. It is thanks to the generous support of our donors and fundraisers, like SHC, that we are able to continue to meet the needs of our community and offer services which make a difference!”