Isle Listen has launched its campaign for mental health awareness week which runs from May 15 to 21.

The charity is hoping that the week will help tackle the mental illness stigma, as well as enabling it to keep up the pressure for funding and change.

The charity says the need for change is highlighted by the fact that Isle Listen received 1,337 referrals of children and young people for one-to-one mental health support in 2022.

The theme of this year’s mental health awareness week is ‘Anxiety’.

According to the charity, anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems people face across the world at present, including the Isle of Man.

Isle Listen wants people across the Isle of Man to get involved during the awareness week to help shine a spotlight on anxiety.

The charity believes that by better understanding the ways that we manage and improve these feelings, they can be prevented from increasing and sometimes becoming a more serious mental health problem.

Andrea Chambers, Isle Listen chief executive, said: ‘We all experience anxiety about many things that arise in our everyday lives. Sometimes however, it can become overwhelming and, in some cases, become a mental health problem.

‘There are things we can do to improve feelings of anxiety and stop them becoming overwhelming, such as physical activity, any sort of hobby, or talking to a trusted friend. ‘The earlier in life we learn skills that support us to overcome anxiety the better, and this is very much at the heart of the work we do at Isle Listen. We hope Mental Health Awareness Week will help people to better understand how to manage anxiety, as well as feeling more confident to talk openly about it.

‘Each year, Mental Health Awareness Week gives us a valuable platform and allows us to work towards increasing public understanding of mental health on our Island, and also highlight the essential mental health support we provide to children and young people in schools and the community.

‘However, we want to ensure that the principles of positive mental health are embedded in society regardless of age, all year round.

‘Occasions such as Mental Health Awareness Week can be used to help tackle the real issue of people not feeling comfortable speaking openly about their mental health and everything that contributes to making it either better or worse. I hope as many people as possible will want to get involved.’

There are various ways that individuals can be involved with the awareness week, you can find out details of how on islelisten.im