News & Events

BU recognises that the good mental health of our staff and students is vital to living life fully both inside and outside of work. To educate and help raise awareness around mental health issues, BU is hosting a wide variety of events between Monday 5 and Saturday 10 October. This programme of events aims to mark World Mental Health Day on 10 October. 

Events include An Audience with Terry Waite CBE humanitarian and author and a presentation by Norman Lamb MP looking at mental health and young people. Talks will also be hosted by Lorna Garner, Beat‘s Chief Operating Officer and Sue Baker, Director of Time to Change.

Other speakers will visit throughout the week to give both personal and professional views on different mental illnesses, and information stands will provide advice and support.

You can keep up to date with the events on Facebook and Twitter – and use #WMHDBU15 to find out what others are saying.

The information below gives the highlights of the week, but for full details and to book onto any of the events, please see the World Mental Health Week Programme. You can also download a poster to share the information with others.

Monday 5 October

• An audience with Terry Waite, CBE humanitarian and author  

Tuesday 6 October – Health and wellbeing day

• Health and Wellbeing ‘marketplace’

• Mindfulness Taster Session

• SportBU fitness classes

• Talk from Colin Dolan, Founder of Mental Health Football

• “Developing High Level Sports Performers: Are We Creating Super Humans or Premature Mental Health Problems” Presented by Dr Rick Hayman, Senior Lecturer, Northumbria University and Professor Remco Polman, Head of Psychology at BU.

• “Sport and Crime – An exploration of athlete experiences.” Lucy Sheppard-Marks, Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Management, BU.

Wednesday 7 October

• “Starting the conversation: how employers are tackling mental health stigma”, Sue Baker, Director of Time to Change

• Mindfulness Taster Session

• “Reclaiming the ‘wasted years’: one person’s journey from Mental illness to employment”, Angela Warren, Service User & Carer Coordinator, Faculty of Health and Social Care, BU

• “Mental Health – the last great workplace taboo?” Lee Dargue, Occupational Health Manager, Siemens and Chair of the Liberal Democrat Mental Health Association.

• “Employment and Recovery” Becky Aldridge, Chief Executive Dorset Mental Health Forum.

Thursday 8 October

• “Helping Children Make Healthy Choices”, Karen Perryman, Rachel Hall, and Gary Hepburn, Life Education Wessex.

• “Online Safety or Digital Wellbeing – Have We Got the Correct Focus?”Professor Andy Phippen, Plymouth University. 

• “Eating Disorders and Schools – Support for teachers, parents and pupils”, Lorna Garner, Beat Interim Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer.

Friday 9 October

• “Mental Health and Young People”, Norman Lamb MP. 

• “Dorset Acute Mental Health Services review – overview and progress”, Kath Florey-Saunders, Head of Review Design and Delivery – Mental Health and Learning Disabilities and Elaine Hurll, Senior Commissioning Manager

• “Understanding Personality Disorders”, Dr Laurence Mynors-Wallis, Consultant Psychiatrist Dorset HealthCare

• “Mental Health and Policing,” Dr Andrew Mayers, Senior Lecturer BU; Stan Sadler, Team Lead and Mental Health Practitioner, Dorset HealthCare; Simon Thorneycroft, Mental Health Co-ordinator, Dorset Police, Martyn Underhill, Police Crime Commissioner.

• “Hidden Talents – Lived Experiences of Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust staff”, Mike Oates; Chaplain Sarah Clark; Hannah Blunt; Donna Jenkins, Dorset HealthCare

Saturday 10 October – World Mental Health Day Charity Fun Walk

• Join in with a Fun Walk for World Mental Health day and join NHS staff, service users, peer specialists and others.