Great Mental Health Day 2023

How does the new year make you feel – full of excitement and optimism or worried about what the next 12 months might hold? January is always a challenging time and, with the cost of living pressures, it’s more important than ever that we look out for our friends, relatives, neighbours, colleagues and other people we know.

One way you can help your community is by getting involved with Great Mental Health Day 2023 (#GreatMentalHealth) on Friday 27 January. Facilitated by Good Thinking and Thrive LDN, this awareness day aims to get Londoners talking about mental health, take the stigma out of asking for help and highlight the many support services available.

Last year, thousands of Londoners came together on Great Mental Health Day. As one 2022 participant commented, “It made us stop and remember to look after each other”. This year, we’d love even more people to take part and we’re encouraging community groups, employers and other organisations across London to get involved.

Here are a few ways you can celebrate the power of community kindness and support Londoners’ mental health and wellbeing on Great Mental Health Day 2023.

Connecting with others has enormous benefits for mental health and wellbeing so this is the perfect opportunity to bring people together for a few hours at the end of January. Focus on activities that boost mood and improve resilience and make your event free and as inclusive as possible. You could:

Set up a group walk around your local area
Arrange a fitness, meditation or yoga class
Host a coffee morning
Run a parent and baby session
Organise an art exhibition or poetry competition

If you already run a playgroup, music class, sports club, food bank or warm space – or if you work with a particular community (e.g. a faith group or young people) – why not celebrate Great Mental Health Day together?

At your event, you could provide a safe space for people to discuss how they are feeling and encourage them to get help if they need it. You might even like to invite a representative of a local wellbeing service or mental health charity to speak to your members.

Find more event suggestions on the Great Mental Health Day 2023 website.

Making Great Mental Health Day a success requires a collective effort. But we know that organising community events takes time and effort so Thrive LDN and Good Thinking have developed a communications toolkit with lots of free posters and graphics for you to share on social media to make things easier:

Download the Great Mental Health Day communications toolkit
Download digital assets such as social media graphics and share them on your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter pages from the Thrive LDN Google Drive

Don’t forget to let us know if you’re organising an event for Great Mental Health Day 2023 – please email the details to info@thriveldn.co.uk in advance and send in your event photos on the day. All the events are advertised on an interactive map, enabling people across London to search and find events they would like to attend.

If you can’t host an event, you can still help us to raise awareness about Great Mental Health Day 2023:

Post on social media using #GreatMentalHealth
Share event information in WhatsApp groups
Promote the day in a newsletter

Over the last five years, Good Thinking has helped hundreds of thousands of Londoners to deal with anxiety, stress, low mood and sleep problems.

We provide free NHS-approved wellbeing apps, a self-assessment tool, quick quizzes, articles, podcasts and other free resources.

If you’re hosting an event for Great Mental Health Day this month (or you’d like to promote good mental wellbeing in your community all year round), print out and share Good Thinking’s resources with as many people as possible. As a free 24/7 digital service, we can help you to start a positive conversation about mental wellbeing and help all Londoners to get their 2023 off to a great start.

How to bring Good Thinking into your event:

Print out Good Thinking postcard flyers and place them around the space you are using for your event or meeting
Print some of our posters and stick them up around your event space or in communal areas (4 posters available - poster 1, poster 2, poster 3, poster 4)
Print some Good Thinking resources to share with attendees, like our Five ways to wellbeing for children and young people (posters) or the Five ways to good mental wellbeing for faith and belief communities (various guides including Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism)

If you can’t host or attend an event in person, you can still get involved with Great Mental Health Day 2023.

Good Thinking and Thrive LDN have organised the following free online events on Friday 27 January:

Webinar to introduce ‘Good Thinking’s guide to looking out for those around you in tough times’ (11:00-11:45)
‘A Radically Caring Pause’ event, which focuses on drawing on your own strengths (13:00-14:00)
Hands-on Ikebana (flower arranging) workshop (14:00-16:00)

Thank you in advance for supporting Great Mental Health Day 2023! We look forward to hearing about your activities and how you’re celebrating the power of community kindness in your local area.

LAST REVIEWED 12 January 2024

Great Mental Health Day 2023: How will you celebrate the power of community kindness?

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