BETTER TOGETHER

To mark this year's Mental Health Awareness Week, Kellie Gillespie-Wright discovers why community is so crucial to our mental health

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There's a quiet truth many of us are waking up to right now: we weren't meant to do this alone. For too long, we've treated mental health as a private matter, something to manage behind closed doors, whisper about in safe spaces, or handle as a personal project. Wellbeing became something to achieve through willpower, self-discipline, or the right routine. And yet, even with more awareness, more resources, and more open conversations, many people are still struggling. Still lonely. Still carrying too much.

What if the problem isn’t us? What if we've just been taught to look for healing in the wrong places? What if wellbeing isn’t just a mindset, but is instead rooted in connection? What if mental health isn’t separate from the spaces we live in, or the relationships we rely on? What if community isn’t just a support system, but care?

‘Community is an important protective factor for our mental health,’ says Alexa Knight, director of England at the Mental Health Foundation, which launched the first Mental Health Awareness Week in 2001, and is this year focusing the week on the theme of community. ‘It not only helps tackle social isolation, but it gives us a sense of belonging, safety, purpose and support.’