It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and this year the focus is on Anxiety. Anxiety is a natural human response and can be experienced through our thoughts, feelings and physical sensations when we feel that we are under threat. Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life, regardless of lifestyle, personality or situation.

Poor mental health is both a cause and consequence of homelessness. For example, the onset of mental illness can trigger, or be part of, a series of events that can lead someone being forced into homelessness.

Furthermore, housing insecurity and homelessness is stressful and can exacerbate or cause mental health problems. This means that there is a higher rate of mental health problems amongst people without a home compared with the general population.

This year, the majority of people we worked with in our Winter Services Provision, (which ran over the coldest months from December - March) experienced mental health issues, at 13% more than last year. Pressures on NHS Mental Health Services make this a challenge, and we expect to carry on working with people who experience these difficulties so it is important that we are able to understand and be aware of these issues. (View our full winter services report here)

At St Petrocs,

A number of our staff are trained in Mental Health First Aid and Suicide Prevention to ensure that clients and staff are able to seek initial support quickly when needed.

Mental Health First Aiders are trained to listen. They are trained to spot the early signs of mental ill-health in others. They are taught to confidently signpost someone to appropriate support, both internal and external, and they are equipped to deal with emergencies too – such as thoughts of suicide, or attempted suicide.

Across our Vocational Development Programme the engagement events always provide at least a few of the ‘5 ways to wellbeing’;

🔍taking notice,

✨connecting with others,

🙌giving,

📖learning,

🥾being active.

to ensure we are also offering experiences that promote improved mental health and wellbeing to our clients, alongside helping participants in the programme take steps towards employment through a holistic approach, providing opportunities with training providers and employers around Cornwall.