mental-health-awareness-activities-for-adults

Mental health is a crucial issue to talk about, however it may sometimes feel extremely unpleasant. Despite this, enhancing mental health awareness is crucial since it may have many beneficial advantages.

For example, one study examining a British anti-stigma campaign found that people who were more familiar with the campaign were more likely to feel comfortable disclosing mental health issues to family, friends, or an employer, and were also more likely to seek professional help (Henderson et al., 2017).

Fortunately, there are different sorts of approaches to learn about mental health difficulties, whether one is an introvert, an extrovert, or somewhere in between.

This article will cover tools that can supplement mental health interventions, worksheets and activities that help people learn about mental health, books dealing with mental health for adults and children, Facebook groups for mental health issues, and finally World Mental Health Day activities and events.

5 Tools for Mental Health Interventions

Here are some tools that will assist a psychotherapy treatment plan run more easily for both the client and the clinician:

1. Thought Record Worksheet

This PDF is a tool to record one’s thoughts and reflect on them. It asks the user to document their feelings and thoughts as well as what was going on to make them feel that way, then has the user reflect on whether or not there is evidence to back up their instinctive ideas. This might be a great adjunct to a psychotherapist-led CBT treatment, but could also assist patients train themselves about CBT.

In fact, one study has demonstrated that thought logs are an effective tool to transform beliefs, even when used by themselves and not in combination with a CBT treatment plan (McManus et al., 2012). Find the Thought Record Worksheet here.

2. The Feeling Wheel

The Feeling Wheel is a basic printable with 72 feelings categorized into 6 groups: angry, sad, afraid, joyous, serene, and strong. Represented as a colorful pie, it may be a helpful aid for psychotherapy clients who have difficulties articulating or expressing their feelings.

While this might make it simpler for clients to express their relationships and experiences outside of therapy, it can also help them offer instant feedback on how they feel during a session.

This strategy is often used to assist clients recognize feelings, extend their emotional vocabulary, and strengthen their emotional regulation (Kircanski et al., 2012).

3. Daily Mood Tracker

This Daily Mood Tracker was intended for persons coping with anger management difficulties but might be beneficial for anybody who wishes to track their mood.

It breaks the day up into multiple two-hour chunks and encourages the user to document their feelings, as well as allowing for notes to explain these moods.

This can also be useful for individuals who have problems expressing themselves but can give excellent self-reflection chances for everyone. Interestingly, some study has even demonstrated that sad clients may improve their mood by measuring it (Harmon et al., 1980).

4. Self-Care Checkup

This worksheet is a self-report Self-Care Checkup that therapists can give their clients after each consultation, to complete in between the sessions. The client is expected to consider the activities they are engaged in to maintain up excellent mental health and wellness.

While many may be considered regular, such as exercising or getting proper sleep, they can frequently be overlooked when they matter most - during times of stress.

This way, the Self-Care Checkup allows clients to become more conscious of the regularity with which they exercise self-care, dividing these actions into five groups:

Emotional;
Physical;
Social;
Professional; and
Spiritual self-care.

By filling it out periodically, clients may compare their self-care practices from week to week, recognizing areas for progress and brainstorming new activities that can help them maintain their mental health.

Read also: Why is Mental Health Important.

5. Preventing Mental Health Relapse

This is a worksheet that might assist clients learn more about probable mental health recurrence. It can be utilized at the conclusion of a therapy treatment plan to assist the client detect a relapse when it is approaching, but can also teach methods to avoid relapse.

This would likely be most useful for mental health difficulties that flare up at certain periods (as opposed to more chronic mental health concerns), and can also be helpful throughout treatment adjustments.

For example, individuals with anxiety disorders receiving both psychotherapy and antidepressants are at risk of relapse when they quit their antidepressant medication (Batelaan et al., 2017).