This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and undoubtedly there will be lots of discussion about the mental health agenda, not just in the current circumstances, but also more broadly. Here at Eton Bridge Partners, we should have been ramping up towards our panel event on this very topic, originally due to take place in early June, but now postponed. This year, I had planned to anchor the event and discussion around the subject of vulnerability, its role in leadership, and its relationship with wellbeing in the workplace. Instead, our entire organisation, like so many others, is operating virtually, and I’m not sure when the brilliant, curious and inspiring panel I had lined up will be in front of an audience.

Of course, Mental Health Awareness Week is a great opportunity to reduce the stigma around mental health and open up discussions. The Mental Health Foundation changed its theme for this week from ‘sleep’ to ‘kindness’ in light of current circumstances.

We have chosen kindness because of its singular ability to unlock our shared humanity. Kindness strengthens relationships, develops community and deepens solidarity. It is a cornerstone of our individual and collective mental health. Wisdom from every culture across history recognises that kindness is something that all human beings need to experience and practise to be fully alive.

said Mark Rowland, CEO, Mental Health Foundation

My colleagues and I at Eton Bridge Partners have all noticed and valued the importance of community over the last 8 weeks: it’s not been the big mental health training programmes or financial investments that have helped us to cope through lockdown, but the ability to ask for help, show vulnerability and a little bit of kindness to those around us. At Eton Bridge, we’ll be sharing some of our experiences through our social media feeds, and I’d encourage you to think small this Mental Health Awareness Week. Often it’s the little things that matter most.

To find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week, or to read the MHF’s Kindness Matters guide, please click here.