Great resources to support & inspire your mental health work
Once again, Dr Pooky Knightsmith is sharing some great resources to support & inspire your mental health work. She is under-going some trauma therapy that is really proving tough despite being effective. She has shared a ‘bad’ day in this video to help support others in the same situation
New Videos:
54321 – a simple relaxation or grounding strategy
A simple strategy for relaxation or grounding that you can either use yourself or use to help others at times of high anxiety or distress.
Distress tolerance skills – the ‘ACCEPT’ skills
This is a practical video to help you develop (or support someone to develop) distress tolerance skills – i.e. the ability to manage overwhelming feelings or emotions. It explores the ‘ACCEPT’ skills which are commonly taught in dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) – don’t let the language and acronyms put you off; I’ve broken it down into practical ideas anyone could use.
Eating Disorder Recovery: 8 ideas for positive mealtimes
Practical ideas to help make meal times as positive / successful as possible during the eating disorder recovery process. The ideas here are helpful if you’re the person in recovery, or if you are supporting someone who is recovering from an eating disorder.
And a few videos from the (rapidly growing) archive you might like:
Managing Depression: the benefits of establishing a daily routine
Anxiety: 6 ways to make life more manageable
Promoting positive body image – ideas for teachers and parents
Preparing to visit the GP about your mental health
Recommended Resources
How to support someone bereaved by suicide– a highly practical guide put together by colleagues at UCL. Well worth bookmarking.
Building resilience in the face of adversity – the 4Ps of resilience– a practical evidence-based approach to resilience drawn together by myself and PhD student Lucas Shelemy.
Supporting the emotional and mental health needs of people with cancer– a new resource from the Mental Health Foundation
And here are a whole bunch of resources recommended by my twitter followers – there are even more in response to the original tweet – take a look here if you want further ideas.
- An A-Z of coping strategies by Hampshire CAMHS
- Links to resources for mental health in young people with SEND shared by Lynn McCann
- Not Fine In School – a new website which aims to help parents and professionals trying to support children with school attendance difficulties
- Food for Thought – a guide by patients with eating disorders to better enable those who care about them to support them
- The first issue of the Pastoral Periodical by @UKPastoralchat is jam-packed with ideas..
Upcoming Events
I’ve started taking on speaking engagements again now – though I’m strictly limiting how many I do as I’m still working hard on my own mental health (and trying to strike a good work life balance). I’ll share details of upcoming events as they emerge – it’s always good to see a friendly face! Here is a selection of the events I have upcoming that you might like to get involved with:
April 28th– Norwich TEDx – This a HUGE TEDx education event in Norwich – it’s fully booked but I believe you’ll be able to watch a live stream of the event. I’ll be talking about suicide. Follow on twitter using the hashtag #TEDxNorwichEd
April 30th– Tunbridge Wells – I’m running a workshop on self-harm
May 8th– Westminster Education Forum – I’ll be discussing the recent mental health Green Paper
May 16th– Bournemouth – a free event to open up the discussion about self-harm – I’m providing the opening keynote Follow on twitter using the hashtag #LetsTalkSelfHarm
May 17th– London – I’m running a workshop on self-harm and eating disorders Follow on Twitter using the hashtag #MHIS2018
Don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you’d like me to chair or speak at your event – I’ve currently got events lined up into April 2019 both home and abroad and I’m really looking forward to getting back out and about a bit more.
Do let me know how you are using these great resources!
