Random acts of kindness and free movie screenings will form part of a programme of activities to mark Mental Health Awareness Week at Robert Gordon University (RGU).
Mental Health Awareness Week is a national event supported by the Mental Health Foundation and runs from Monday, May 16 until Sunday, May 22.
In partnership with the university’s ‘Fit for the Future’ initiative, RGU’s Mental Health Wellbeing Group has plans to raise awareness and promote mental wellbeing across the campus.
Group members will encourage staff and students to engage with the Five Ways to Wellbeing key actions: ‘Keep learning,’ ‘Take notice,’ ‘Be active,’ ‘Connect,’ and ‘Give.’
Activities will include encouraging people to make eye contact with each other, free introductory Qi-gong sessions, encouraging people to carry out random acts of kindness, and a day dedicated to hugs.
Mental Health Nursing lecturers Scott Macpherson and Dan Warrender will also host the first in the series of mental health movie monthly screenings on campus, which will have a mental health related theme and be followed by a discussion session led by RGU lecturers.
The first screening, featuring the critically acclaimed Take Shelter (15), will take place on Monday, May 16 from 5pm until 8pm in the Sir Ian Wood Building amphitheatre.
Thereafter, a movie screening will be organised each month for the next five months in order to raise awareness & keep people talking about mental health throughout the year.
The screenings will be free and are open to all staff, students and interested members of the public.
RGU’s Mental Health Wellbeing Group lead, Dr Steve Smith from the School of Nursing and Midwifery, said, “Mental Health problems affect around 25% of adults at any one time, and many of us tend to take our mental health and wellbeing for granted.
“Throughout Mental Health Awareness Week, as part of RGU’s ‘Fit for the Future’ initiative, we will be raising awareness of some of the things people can do to promote and maintain their mental wellbeing.
“The university has a strong commitment to the ethic of being all you can be, and we are looking forward, in particular, to inviting the wider community onto our campus to share in the mental health movie monthly project which will run from Mental Health Awareness Week, in May, until World Mental Health Day in October.”
More information about RGU’s Fit for the Future initiative is available at: https://rgufitforthefuture.wordpress.com/