In May 2023 the Cha in the City Open Group for Punjabi men met virtually to discuss the topic of Managing Our Mental Health. Here are some reflections from the brilliant team who facilitate and contribute towards those conversations.
This month the online forum topic for discussion was ‘Managing your Mental Health’ this was a topic for discussion including the experience of forum members.
As usual there were some questions to guide the discussion on the topic, although the questions are posed to support the discussions, the conversations often are led by the participants. The questions this month that were offered included -
- Are you finding it difficult to manage your mental health?
- Which coping mechanisms do you use?
- Have you found the community supportive of you when you have had difficulty?
This month had a very personal feel with regards the sharing of experiences of the participants. People spoke about the challenges of their own mental health the challenges is brings to everyday life. there were shares from participants about their own personal journeys with mental health needs and their recovery.
We heard about how people have found help from a range of avenues including the NHS, private therapists, personal networks, and charities.
The conversations around how people have coped with mental health challenges also included how they manage proactively their mental wellbeing. There were some very positive shares around activities and actions people have taken to manage when things have not been going well. There were also some tips shared around how to manage and maintain good mental health.
We talked about the responses from within the community and this was quite a mixed picture and the feedback around how important spaces like the forums are to explore and share around the mental health topics was spoken about by participants.
The topic allowed for many differing contributions from those who participated, and the quality of the discussion was very much delivered by the contributions of the participants.
The forums are a great safe place to explore issues that have an impact either directly or indirectly to our wellbeing. Participating in the facilitated spaces are a great opportunity to share and hear about a range of subjects, and we are always keen to hear from participants about subjects for future forums.
