Rotary St Helens launches ‘UnZip The Silence’ mental health and wellbeing campaign
A community-based organisation based in St Helens has launched a Borough-wide campaign aimed at reducing the incidence of poor mental health and its debilitating effects.
St Helens has one of the highest rates of mental ill health, self-harm, and suicide in the country. Rotary St Helens, which has supported the community for over 100 years, has now decided that urgent action is needed to help reduce these numbers.
Paul Winstanley, Youth Lead at Rotary St Helens said at the launch in St Helens town centre’s Parish Church on World Mental Health Day: “Through conversations with local people and given the scale of the issue in 2024, it became clear that there’s confusion about where to seek help quickly. When someone’s in a bad place, searching for the right information online can be overwhelming, so people often suffer in silence.”
Paul and fellow members of Rotary St Helens believe the solution is ‘UnZip the Silence’ – a new creative campaign for the Borough that includes posters with a designated QR code.
He continued: “Once scanned, the QR code takes the user directly to the help they need, removing the hassle of searching online and navigating multiple support options.”
Rotary St Helens members, with experience in mental health and welfare, presented the idea to Ruth Du Plessis, Director of Public Health, Integrated Health and Social Care, and Mental Health Practitioner Matthew Thompson.
“Both Ruth and Matt felt the concept was a strong addition to the support already offered by the NHS, St Helens Council, and other agencies,” Paul added.
At the event, Matthew Thompson, spoke about the mental health challenges across the borough. He highlighted suicides for 2021 -23 in which St Helens ranks as 11th highest in England and 3rd highest in the North West, “this being the highest rate seen since 1999,” he said.
Dr Michelle Loughlin, FFPH, Consultant in Public Health, at St Helens Borough Council, spoke about how ‘UnZip The Silence’ “is so important in supporting the community as it signposts people in an easy and assessable way to the various types of support that is available which people may be totally unaware of. I’d like to thank Rotary St Helens for the work they are doing, supporting both St Helens Council and the NHS in helping the community.”
At the presentation, representatives from four charities, namely, QWELL, MIND, Young Carers and Chrysalis Centre explained to the audience how their charities support mental health and the community. All the charities can be found via the ‘UnZip The Silence’ QR code.
Poster and QR Code below:
https://qrco.de/UnziptheSilence