An Invitation

Posted by: Alison Chisnell on: January 16, 2013

• In: Health | HR | Mental health
• 4 Comments

This post needs little introduction at the current time. It is by the author of Courage and is an invitation to you to join us and take action on mental health.

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On New Years Day I wrote some words. They came to me and I had to get them down before they were lost so I wrote them on my phone. They tumbled out, 766 of them at the final account.

You probably read them 11 or 12 days later. The words were clumsy, raw and visceral but I’ve written and indeed experienced far worse. They certainly seemed to affect you because you told your friends, your colleagues and your families. Many people came to visit, to read those 766 words. Thank you.

Since then (was it only a few days ago?) countless expressions of sympathy and many offers of help have come in. I’ve spent the last few days wrestling with whether to go public or hide behind the anonymity. In some ways I’m torn, there is a very real professional risk to my employment prospects and I certainly don’t want to be the “poster child” for mental health issues in the HR/LD sphere. Also, there are people who write far more effectively and consistently on mental health, who are doing amazing work in this area.

Finally, (and I suppose this is the crux of it) I don’t want this to be the only thing that you know of me or associate me with, because I’m so much more than that. Undoubtedly, my mental health has contributed in no small part to my successes and indeed my failures – I certainly feel I could write the book on resilience. Yet, as it stands those 766 words are gender, colour, faith and sexuality neutral – appropriate really seeing as Mental Health conditions respect none of those boundaries.

Where does that leave us? I would like to keep my anonymity at this time and you want to help, to get involved and do something.

Alison and I have wracked our brains with what to do next and it’s a two pronged approach. Alison has very kindly offered up her blog next week for anyone to post their experiences and in that way hopefully to maintain some sort of momentum.

The second part is an invitation. We want you all to join us one evening at Informa’s offices in early February. We can’t promise anything fancy but we can offer the chance to meet and hear from people who face a daily struggle with their Mental Health. There will be an opportunity to learn about the charity Mind, the resources that they offer and the tools they use. Mind also wants to hear from you, to answer your questions on the issues and challenges that you and your organisations are facing.

We will confirm a date later this week. If you can’t wait to get involved then visit Mind’s website or perhaps take the pledge at Time to Change.

What we are saying is this. Take some action, please don’t just read those 766 words and then forget that I was ever there.

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If you care about mental health and want to make a difference there are lots of things you can do

• visit Mind’s website and check out their excellent corporate resources
• take the ‘time to change’ pledge
• attend our event with Mind on 5th February 2013 at 6pm
• share your story and read those of others as part of the #25percentclub blog series

Tags: Mental health, Mind (charity)