To celebrate World Mental Health Day 2020, Buckinghamshire Mind’s Friend in Need service will be hosting a Virtual Mental Wellbeing Fayre, which will provide short taster sessions of activities pertaining to the five ways of wellbeing; connect, be active, take notice, keep learning, give.

The event will be held on Friday 9^th October via Zoom and will provide FiN members and those interested in joining FiN with bitesize sessions on mindfulness, art, laughter yoga and the FiN choir, Mind the Note.

The Fayre is one of a series of activities planned by Buckinghamshire Mind for World Mental Health Day to benefit different people within the community. These include:

• We will be posting a free video providing top tips for starting a conversation about mental health, which can be accessed by everyone at facebook.com/BucksMind. The aim is to support the inclusive message of this year’s theme: ‘Mental Health for All: Greater Investment – Greater Access. Everyone, everywhere.’ The video will launch at 9am on 10th October.
• We will be supporting the mental health of children and young people by offering a free mental health education assembly to all schools who take part in #MuftiforBucksMind on Friday 9^th October, the day before World Mental Health Day.
• Our Older Adults’ Service has produced a video that shows how friends and family of people living with dementia can use the senses to start meaningful conversations and encourage reminiscence.
• Our Employment Support service will be sending resource packs to all its service users. The packs, titled ‘Staying Well in Employment and Job Searching’, cover a wide range of topics, from the health benefits of working, Equality legislation and disclosing mental health concerns at work to chair based exercises.
• Our Wellbeing Groups will be encouraged to explore how everyone has mental health and their own experiences of mental health issues through creative writing, art and quizzes.
• We will be holding a volunteer development session on World Mental Health Day, which will include the topics of inclusivity and diversity.