Sort of Nothing Like A Book Club: Issue 29

This weeks' editor:
Kate

Hello,

Welcome to Sort of Nothing Like A Book Club, the newsletter from Creative CoLab.

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. This annual event allows the UK as a whole to focus on achieving good mental health. It's an opportunity to open conversations about mental health and wellbeing - particularly in this difficult time.

For this edition, we have been looking at mental health and wellbeing and looking at particular issues within the arts and creative sectors.

Read on to find out what we've discovered.

Working well when working for yourself
by Matthew Knight from Leapers

In this article Matthew discusses key issues faced by those who work for themselves and gives advice on how to tackles these. He looks at setting boundaries, taking time off and ways to combat isolation.

Leapers is a peer-support community supporting the mental health of the self-employed, curating and creating resources to help you create a plan to work well when working for yourself.
www.leapers.co
Twitter: @leapersco

Arts & Health Hub - Supporting Artists
by Daniel Regan from Arts & Health Hub

In this blog post, Daniel speaks about his organisation Arts & Health hub and explores the way they tackle loneliness and isolation in the creative sector.
www.artsandhealthhub.org

Mental Health Organisations
We have compiled a list of some organisations that support people with their mental health. We have included arts sector-specific organisations as well as Worcestershire and National organisations.

Mental health on stage - who takes care of who?
This article looks at how mental health is portrayed in theatre within musicals, plays and monologue compilations. It questions the responsibility theatre-makers have to the audience when presenting possibly triggering and distressing pieces of work.

What psychologists recommend you watch during the coronavirus pandemic for mental health
This is a very interesting piece about watching TV as a way to benefit your mental health. When many of us turned to this art form to occupy us during this time, this article looks at how it became a coping mechanism and a way to escape and keep spirits up.

How television is tackling mental health
This piece by the Royal Television Society looks at how the once-taboo subject of mental health is now being tackled by many tv shows. It explores how the topic is now covered in children's TV and how it is empowering for those audiences. It also analyses both constructive and controversial portrayals, including 13 Reasons Why and Hollyoaks, and discusses the impact these shows have.

Art for wellbeing: The relationship of Art and Mental Health
This piece looks at how the impact of art goes beyond just beautification or improving aesthetics. It considers how art improves psychological and physical wellbeing in multiple ways and how it can be instrumental in recovering from ill-health.

And Lastly...

Mental Health Awareness Week is a wonderful opportunity to start a conversation with your friends and family about mental health. It's so important to look after your wellbeing and reach out for support if you need to.

To find out more about the week, activities you can do and resources, visit the Mental Health Foundation.

Thank you to our wonderful guest writers Matthew Knight and Daniel Regan for this edition. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share about anything we've touched upon in this issue we'd love for you to get in touch.

Bye!