We are in royal company talking about mental health.
Last week at Caring For Life many of our pastoral staff gathered for a training course on mental health and well-being. The staff gathered together from almost all aspects of our work. Some came from offices, others from the Supported Living homes, some from being out and about in the city on our Housing Support team and some from the horses and cattle. I think the two hour training course might have been the longest time they had sat still all week!
We are very conscious of the need to be well informed as we care for and support so many people who struggle with mental health issues. At Caring For Life we are in the fairly unusual position of supporting people with a very wide range of needs.
We don’t set very tight referral criteria but rather try to reach out to the people who need it most. For this reason we try to keep ourselves well informed and we liaise closely with specialist agencies and encourage our beneficiaries to engage with them as needed.
We are also aware that we need to be very careful to look after our own mental well-being so that we can continue to love, support and walk alongside those in our care and share Jesus’ love with them. Supporting troubled people is never straightforward and it can be very demanding so we were reminded to be careful to seek support and to support each other.
BBC One Documentary: A Royal Team Talk
We were interested to see that, just a few days before our training course, HRH Prince William featured in a BBC documentary called A Royal Team Talk alongside a few famous names from football.
Their focus was men’s mental health and the need to normalise the issues so that men feel free to talk about them and seek the help they need. It was an excellent programme and it seemed quite significant that a member of the British royal family was leading the way in these issues. It was also good to know that we at Caring For Life were focusing on the things that are really important to those in our care and the equipping ourselves better to meet their many and varied needs.