Mental Health Awareness Week is almost over and as Shepheard Epstein Hunter’s self-appointed Mental Health Champion it was suggested I might say a few words, so here they are.

Like many others, I have known several people who have sadly been driven to take their own lives. This has been upsetting and I have often wondered whether it would have been possible to prevent that tragic outcome through being in the right place at the right time and giving the right kind of help.

At the beginning of this year I attended a Mental Health Champion’s training day as part of the MHFA England programme. Since then we have recruited 3 volunteers from the office to undertake the full 2 day Mental Health First Aid training. The idea is that our MHFA volunteers will be there for anyone that has concerns about their own mental health to approach in confidence.

Different people have different stress triggers and different coping strategies. Like good design, achieving good mental health is not always easy and is unlikely to result from a one size fits all approach. However, I feel that at least we are taking a few steps in the right direction.