Mental Health Action Plan

Everyone should have a mental health action plan. Either watch the video above, or read along below and we’ll convince ya why it’s a good idea to have one, and share some tips for what to include in your own one! Plus a template if you’re like us and love a bit of structure to work from!

Why should you have a mental health action plan?

We often have medicine cupboards or a first aid kit for emergencies. Even if it’s just some paracetamol for if you get a headache. At some point, you would’ve gone to the shop while you were feeling fine, and picked up some paracetamol. Or maybe you’ve got some cold & flu tablets. They might be left over from the last time you had a cold, but once you experienced them working, you kept them around for the next time you catch a cold. 

It’s the same kinda concept when we’re talking about protecting your mental health. 

You could almost think of a mental health action plan like wearing a seatbelt. 99% of the time you’re not gonna need it. But in those moments that you might not be able to see coming, where you do need it, you’re gonna be super thankful it’s there. 

So what should you include in a mental health action plan?

There’s no right or wrong answer here really. But if you think of the state of mind you might be in when you need to access this plan & put it into action, it’s worth making it as simple as possible. 

Here’s a couple of key points that I’ve got on mine that might be helpful for you too:

People

Who do you have in your life that you can talk to about whatever you’re going through? Do you have someone that you can call or message anytime and you know they’ll pick up. 

It’s a good idea to have the contact details of a few people that you can hit up if you find yourself in a bad way. Worth giving them a heads up that you’re including them in this plan, so they can prepare themselves too. And you can let them know what it is that’s helpful to you when you’re in a crisis. For example, maybe you just need them to listen to you, or give you a cwtch, or it could be helping you contact further support. 

Activities

Think about what it is you do that makes you feel good in general. That could be literally anything. For me, it’s playing drums, video games, and exercising. And it’s a case of having a few ideas of stuff that can work in different situations. 

If you need any suggestions of stuff that’s helped other people in the past, hit the button below!

Space

Where’s a safe place for you? A place where you can be 100% yourself, show your emotions and let it all out? Maybe that’s in your room cwtched under your duvet. Maybe it’s at the house of someone you trust. Or maybe it’s in the HATW shop..! 

If it’s somewhere different to where you spend most of your time, you might benefit from popping the address on there, and even some directions on how to get there. 

Services

Having someone you know you can rely on is super helpful. But sometimes you’re gonna need a lil bit extra support if you need to put this plan into action. It’s worth being aware of the services available in your area. Maybe it’s a mental health crisis team in your community. Maybe it’s your local doctors. Or it could just be something like a helpline; for example The Samaritans or Papyrus. 

A tool that could be helpful for finding the services near you is Hub of Hope. It uses your location or your postcode to find support services in your area, and you can filter by different needs too. Pretty handy!

Making your own mental health action plan

If you use these 4 points (which handily spell out PASS) then you’ve got yourself a mental health action plan. You can of course add or change anything to meet your specific needs too, but this is a good starting point!

And if you wanna download a template, you can hit the button below!

It’s the sort of thing that hopefully you never need, but definitely worth having as part of your mental health toolkit in general. 

If you found this helpful

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