The mental health first aid kit now available for our homes

a service from

The essential journalist news source

27.

January

2021.

The mental health first aid kit now available for our homes

Pandemic mental health care kit for use at home as a preventative solution

Learn how to be mentally resilient in the comfort of your own home by using the newly launched Awareness Key Mental Health Care Kit

The Mental Health Care Kit, a completely new and exclusive product, has been created as a result of lockdown. It has been designed by Harry (Arabella) Mansfield, Mental Strength Coach, who founded The Awareness Key, an outdoor centre which specialises in teaching the techniques for strengthening mental health through sport, animals and nature.

Harry is a dedicated advocate of preventative mental health care and has overcome her own personal obstacles, including a life-changing head injury, a son in ICU and finding out recently her father may not be her father. She is on a mission to educate people on the importance of strengthening one's mental health in order to take on life's many curveballs.

Her care kit brings all the experiences, together in one user-friendly package that focuses heavily on the senses and thought processes essential to wellbeing and mental strength.

It defines the core principals that bring the experiences people have whilst at the outdoor centre to the client's home. Each section of the kit is clearly labelled so you can see and feel where you are at the outdoor centre.

The Animals Zonecomes with postcards of the herd of horses and ponies as well as the resident Awareness Key dog, Chloe. In this part of the kit, there are furry fabric swatches which Ms Mansfield refers to during the session as touch which is such an important element forcalming both the body and helps us regulate our thoughts. The client will be invited to choose the postcard of the animal they feel most connected to and will go on to use this as a safe space anchor, which Harry will explain how it benefits you on the session. During the in-person session at The Outdoor Centre, the client will have a huge range of fun experiential learning exercises with the animals.

The Sport Zonesection of the kit combines golf balls and emojis which the client is invited to draw on with the Sharpie provided. A choice of tennis/rugby/football stress ball is used for games in the session as well as helping to relieve stress. This will be part of the guided online session so that the skills can be used afterwards. At the Outdoor Centre, movement in the sports zone has many benefits for mental resilience.

The Nature Zonesection has postcards of the sunset above The Outdoor Centre as well as tactile pieces of bark, sprigs of rosemary and wood slices ready to be drawn on (images of ideas on how to draw on them are part of the online session). Opening this part of the pack fills your olfactory senses as the nature items smell fresh and full of the outdoors! Clients enjoy a wide selection of additional nature zone activities when at the outdoor centre such as firepits and forest skills.

A key part of the kit is the Care Card booklet that will be referred to throughout the session as Ms Mansfield helps the client to manage their breathing and gives instructions on how to calm oneself down if in panic mode. The other areas that are discussed and given strength training are feelings, self-talk, anchors, safety and boundaries. The kit is to be used over and over again and is stored in a cotton bag.

The Mental Health Care Kit is sold at £75 which includes a 60-minute online session per person. Email to order atam@awarenesskey.co.ukwith the subject title MHCK. Groups can also be booked.

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

Before the pandemic 1 in 4 people were diagnosed with mental health problems which equates to over 16million people in this country. This figure mid and post-pandemic is inevitably increasing. The Awareness Key founder and Mental Strength Coach Harry Mansfield is on a mission to educate people on the importance of strengthening one's mental health in order to take on life's many curveballs. She says as people go to the gym to work on their physical strength, people must also take care of their mental health by learning techniques that can be done at home.

Like fitness and diet, the skills for you to be mentally strong need to be practised regularly and are specific to you. A fitness programme set specifically for you isn't going to be as successful as one for someone else.

Strong Mental Health skills, once learned, are then put into place every day in the same way that we go to work/school, eat, exercise and rest, without needing to allocate extra time in the day.

Success with our clients ranges from children, teens, students, couples, individuals and corporate groups.

Testimonials:

"Proactively preventing mental health problems rather than fixing them after the event is so important."

"I thought I would just do the Nature side but I ended up doing Sport and Animals as well! Such a fun way to learn."

"We all have mental health - why do we not know how to understand or deal with it? Thank you for helping me understand mine"

"Everything I do is now more successful having strengthened my mental health with you. Thank you."

"It is so important to build up your mental strength and ability to help and support yourself. Education is the way forward"

"I love how lives are being changed through your work - both in businesses and families"

Company Bio

Harry Mansfield, the founder, believes that proactive rather than reactive action is the key to strong mental health. The company's mantra is "Powering Up Your Mind Before It Powers You Down".

She says: "Experience from personal adversity, a life-changing head injury and careers to date have set up the successful "Mindpower Proficiency Techniques" taught at The Awareness Key. They help you be resilient each day and cope better when a mental health challenge starts. I am passionate about making strengthening mental health as normal as strengthening one's body in the gym."

Mental resilience is essential for our wellbeing, particularly at present, as the strains have become even more acute. Itispossible to build up mental strength and thankfully Harry Mansfield's earlier intervention approach keeps us mentally strong in a constantly changing world.

Harry Mansfield has also managed to get a petition into government to fund the teaching of these skills:

Fund mental strength sessions in both schools and businesses

Prevention is better than cure.