Next week is Geek Mental Help Week 2016
Geek Mental Help Week starts next Monday and I’m very happy to say that there are several events happening during the week.
MCR Geek Mental Help night
Gem Hill and Mike Bell have organised MCR Geek Mental Help night, “An evening of discussion and talks around mental health in tech/geek spaces and culture” at the Autotrader offices on 1st Street, Manchester on Thursday October 6th, at 18:30–21:00.
Girl Geek Tea Party
Also at the Autotrader offices on Sunday October 9th, Manchester Girl Geeks are hosting a Girl Geek Tea Party, 10.30am–4pm. This looks like it will be a fantastic event and they have speakers. Topics include:
- Liv from Liv’s Recovery Kitchen
- How apps can manage mental health
- A workshop on 30 days of happiness
- How mental health impacts physical health and vice versa
- Talks on sleep, suicide, and more
MK Geek Mental Help Night #3
Milton Keynes Geek Night are once again hosting a Geek Mental Help Night on Thursday October 6th. Tickets are free and speakers include; Joe Bell on ‘Modern Mindfulness,’ Ed Syrett on meditation as an aid to mental health, depression, anxiety and stress and Russell Barnbrook on ‘perspective and your brain.’
I had the pleasure of speaking at MK Geek Mental Help Night last year (you can listen to my talk on Don Draper’s depersonalisation disorder on SoundCloud.
What’s Geek Mental Help Week
In case you’ve missed it the past two years, Geek Mental Help Week is a week-long series of articles, blog posts, conversations, podcasts and events across the web about mental health issues, how to help people who suffer, and those who care for us.
Submitting an entry is easy. Write on your own website, on Medium or somewhere similar and add your entry to Geek Mental Help Week website by making a pull request on GitHub. If you’re not familiar with GitHub, no problem, you can send a link to @geekmentalhelp on Twitter, use the #geekmentalhelp hashtag or even email us a link and description and we’ll add your entry for you.
Talking about mental health doesn’t have to be in the form of an article. If you host a podcast and you mention mental health this week, you should link to that discussion too.
Mental health is an important issue for people who work in our industry and last year Geek Mental Help Week really helped people to share and talk about experiences and how to help each other. Let’s carry that conversation on next week.