Men’s Mental Health Month at The Learning Foundry - Tips from our Mental Health First Aider, Karl
November marks Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month and The Learning Foundry believes passionately in drawing attention to and destigmatizing issues around mental health.
Karl ,our Mental Health First Aider at The Learning Foundry, has opened up about his own struggles with his mental health and wants to bring awareness to the wide range of support available.
After losing a close family member in 2019, Karl sought help through Liverpool’s Talking Therapies service and from there was referred to a specific bereavement therapy and diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Since then, Karl has sought to highlight just how much support there is available for people and the importance of speaking out.
This month, Karl is working with the team at The Learning Foundry to get all our learners and our staff to open up about how they’re feeling. There will be an array of sessions on campus for our staff and our learners that we can’t wait to get involved in.
As part of Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, Karl has shared his top tips on what helped him on his journey to improve his mental wellbeing and where you can go if you are looking for some support:
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Speak to people and you’re halfway there
When Karl was suffering with his mental health, he realized how much he needed his family and friends to speak to about how he was feeling. If you are feeling down, make sure you speak to your family or friends, or a local support service. There are always people out there who will listen.
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Look at your options
However you’re feeling, there will be lots of different things you can do and people or organizations that you can speak to. If you have tried speaking to a friend but things are getting worse, reach out to a medical professional who will be able to support you further.
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Look after yourself
For Karl, exercising and keeping fit really helped him to stay positive. Karl found moving his body physically really helped him to feel better mentally. Sports are great, they help you get out there and meet people but even a walk is good – it doesn’t have to be anything vigorous.
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Understand how important your mental health is
Karl didn’t realise how hard things got until he was struggling with his own mental health. Functioning in work, with your family and friends or in education can be really hard if you’re struggling. Realizing that you might need some support can even be a step in the right direction!
Karl is really looking forward to working with the TLF team this month to have some open and honest conversations. Keep your eye on TLF socials where we’ll be sharing lots of top tips.