| The community mental health nurse will be available in the Shop For Health stall in Dundee’s Wellgate Centre on Thursday afternoon, in an expansion of the successful project there.
She said one in four people will be affected by mental ill-health at some time in their life and one in five will suffer from clinical depression.
“These problems treble in areas of deprivation, which is half of Dundee,” said Angie.
Her presence on the stall every other Thursday afternoon is not aimed at people with severe mental illness, but anyone interested in protecting their own mental health, or in helping others to maintain mental well-being.
“I am on a bit of a crusade,” said Angie. “People know to eat five pieces of fruit and veg a day and take exercise to look after their bodies. People don’t really look after their mental health until it is broken down. We tend to take our mental health for granted.”
She said regular exercise had a significant impact on people’s mental well-being and food could affect mood. At the Shop For Health stall she is be able to offer advice on nutrition and how people could link in to various exercise classes already being run as part of Dundee’s Healthy Living Initiative.
The launch of Angie’s involvement in the stall coincides with Mental Health Action Week, which has taken the theme of exercise in mental health.
“We want to raise awareness of the importance of exercise to mental well-being,” said Angie.
“One of the things the Shop For Health and Mental Well Being Information Point will do is act as a kind of signpost to link people in to the wide range of exercise classes we already have in the city.”
She said part of her purpose was to encourage people to talk about their mental welfare and take action to protect it. Many people didn’t talk about the subject and felt there was a stigma attached to mental health issues.
She said that, while there were services available for people with severe mental illness, there was not so much available for people looking to protect their mental well-being, although that was changing.
Community nurses already in attendance at the Shop For Health stall have found that when people call in with queries about their physical health, they often have emotional and mental well-being problems as well. |
