As we enter Mental Health Awareness Week, Councillor Michael Lilley, the ward councillor for Ryde Appley and Elmfield begins a week of daily blogs to highlight the campaign.
Today (Monday) he’ll be giving a speech at the Centre for Mental Health’s Mentally Healthier Council’s Network in South East Region.
Highlighting peer the importance of peer-support self-help groups
The Isle of Wight council Mental Health Champion, Councillor Lilley, told News OnTheWight,
“I am speaking at an event in the South-East region on how as a councillor in a unitary authority (Isle of Wight) raises mental health awareness and particularly make sure residents have a strong voice in the planning and delivery of services. I am particularly focusing on peer-support self-help groups and their importance role. It was in 2017, that I successfully put forward a motion for IW Council to sign up to the LGA and Centre for Mental Health’s Mental Health Challenge.
“For me, our mental-well-being has to be at the centre of all policies and agendas as if we are not happy, depressed, anxious, lonely and depressed then something is seriously wrong.”
He went on to say,
“It is normal to have ups and downs in life but when the downs are severely more than the ups then something needs to change and we need to be brave and ask for help.
“Peer-support groups such as IW Youth Trust mental health taskforce, Men-Only IW, and Ventnor Well-Being Cafe provide help from people like ourselves who have been through down times and come out the other side.”
