MMI marks Mental Health Awareness Week with photo competition to highlight links between the natural world and wellbeing
This Mental Health Awareness Week the Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) is launching a photo competition on the theme of the links between the natural world, and our mental health and wellbeing.
Mental Health Awareness Week runs from Monday, 10 May to Sunday, 16 May and is organised by the Mental Health Foundation. This year’s theme is nature, specifically the link between being connected with the natural world and better mental health outcomes.
For the MMI competition, which runs until 30 June, you can submit photographs, artwork, creative writing or any other media on this theme by emailing Lisa Quigley, Mind Matters Manager, on l.quigley@rcvs.org.uk with a short explanation about your submission and why nature is important to your mental health and wellbeing.
Lisa says: “There is a strong and increasing evidence base that time spent in nature – whether that’s hiking, gardening, bird-watching or any other activity – has positive outcomes on our overall mental health and wellbeing by instilling us with a sense of connectedness [see below]. With restrictions over much of the last year on what we can do and on seeing our friends and families, the appreciation of nature and its importance for us has only grown, and so this is a very apt theme for 2021.
“Of course veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses are in a very privileged position of working so closely with the natural world and so I greatly look forward to looking through this year’s submissions!”
More information about the Mental Health Foundation’s Mental Health Awareness Week, including an explanation as to why nature was chosen as this year’s theme, can be found here on their website.
For further details about the MMI competition, contact Lisa Quigley on the above email address.
Further reading about the links between the natural world and wellbeing:
- ‘Nature and mental health’: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/nature-and-mental-health/how-nature-benefits-mental-health/
- ‘The effect of nature exposure on the mental health of patients: a systematic review’: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30746588/
