This World Mental Health Day, the Anti Stigma team at Touchstone’s Mentally Healthy Leeds will be holding a ‘Living Libraries’ event to talk openly about mental health and challenge stigma around it.

Hi there. My name is Stephanie Francis (but everyone knows me as Steph) and I am a Community Development Worker in the Mentally Healthy Leeds team of Touchstone, based at Cromwell Mount.

Each year I work with Mental Health Anti Stigma Champions to co-facilitate an event on World Mental Health Day to raise awareness of the continued stigma and discrimination in communities around mental health issues.

The aim of the Anti Stigma work at Touchstone and, indeed Mentally Healthy Leeds, is to give those with ‘lived experience’ the opportunity to share their stories of dealing with, coping with and managing their own mental health issues.

This year the World Mental Health Day event will take place at the Henry Barran Centre in Gipton on Monday 10th October, from 10am-4pm.  Everyone is welcome to attend and the theme for this year is the Living Library.

Come along and give the ‘Living Library’ books (who are champions sharing their stories) the chance to tell you about their own personal journeys with mental health issues. There will also be a free tombola and refreshments available.

The day will promise to be entertaining with plenty of freebies, so it’s also a day of fun and demonstrates the ethos of the Anti Stigma Champions and Mentally Healthy Leeds of focusing on mental wellbeing, with the Mentally Healthy Leeds and Your Space teams supporting the day.

I hope you can join us!

Please click here to download the flyer for this event: Anti Stigma Champions World Mental Health Day ‘Living Libraries’ Event.