Conversation starters or how we respond to someone is so crucial to how a person may continue a conversation with us.
Like when we ask someone how they are and they start to tell you how they are feeling, then you respond by checking you watch or looking in a different direction, this gives out a clear message that really we just don’t care!
What we don’t say is often more important than the words that we do, that’s why it important we educate ourselves on mental health issues. The reality is how we respond to people who are struggling really could SAVE LIFES.
From my experience in the counselling room, when somebody responds inappropriately to someone who is reaching out it can have serious and long term consequences.
That is why I am passionate about educating individuals on conversation starters, I love the Mental Health First Aider Model and am a Mental Health first Aider myself. There is however a lot of topics that this doesn’t cover, which is why our developed our FlourisHER support project to support people to understand more about topics that people can feel uncomfortable talking about, a big topic at the moment being the Menopause. Many people laugh at such a word, however truth is many women are really struggling and many are reaching out for support, but are simply not getting it.
My passion personally is raising awareness of infant loss. Would you know how to respond if someone comes to you saying they have recently experienced an ectopic pregnancy? Would you know why someone was so upset after a missed miscarriage?
How we respond to such trauma for people is important and as a charity we want to help support those conversation starters, help support you to create a culture why its perfectly fine to talk about such issues.
Would you know how to recognise if someone is stressed, anxious or depressed? Yes there is differences, they are not always to spot but can managed in many different ways.
We are also supporting young people through our Wellbeing Ambassador training programme to help with conversation starters. Research shows that young people struggling are more likely to reach out to their peers than anyone else and this can be quite daunting for a young people to deal with. Our ambassador programme helps with the conversation starters and who to sign post their friends to.
Mental health support is not always about counselling and offering therapeutic support it is about be a listening ear, starting the right conversations and responding appropriately. Simple techniques that can be enhanced if we understand mental health and wellbeing a little more. More people are struggling than ever before and you can do your bit to help make a crucial difference!