Mental Health Awareness Week starts next week (12-18 May) so brace yourself for a deluge of social media. I’m not a fan of awareness weeks, months, days or even years. I’m sure they have value to some, but I also know that they solve nothing.  So, I normally avoid putting pen to paper or committing words to a screen.

But the theme for the Mental Health Foundation’s campaign this year is community, and at Platfform we believe that many of the solutions to the continued increase in poor mental health, and increasing demands on mental health systems, lie in communities, and not in health systems.  In Wales at least there’s some good stuff bubbling that gives me hope that things might change.

The focus on community, on an open access mental health system that prioritises prevention, and worries less about diagnosis and eligibility criteria, in the new Welsh Government Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy 2025-2035, is incredibly welcomed.  Coupled with the purposeful, brave and decisive leadership that we are currently experiencing from the Wales NHS Executive’s Strategic Programme for Mental Health has got me excited.  You can read more about the new Welsh Strategy and our thoughts on it here.

But when we talk about community, we need to understand that it means very different things to people. It can be the place where you live, the places where you hang out online, it can be other people like you that you identify with, and so many other things.

Or we can be connected by a common experience. Next week, at the start of Mental Health Awareness Week on 16th May, I am lucky to be attending the Deserters Exhibition – a powerful exhibition curated in part by a good friend of mine who, following emergency brain surgery a number of years ago, has  experienced significant lasting impact. She is part of my friendship community and an important part of me feeling connected and cared for. She is also amazing, and together with an artist friend, they have connected with artists across the UK and beyond who have been impacted by life limiting / shortening illness.

Together as a community they have curated a powerful exhibition. The artists whilst not necessarily knowing each other well, feel to me like a powerful community with a powerful and impactful story to tell.

So what am I trying to say? Community comes in many forms, it has many purposes, but I think that primarily, the purpose is that of connection – and through that, meaning and purpose. These are all the things we need to feel well, experience hope and to have the chance for a life well lived.

But we can’t talk about community without being absolutely clear that we aren’t all starting from the same starting point. Some of us are way more privileged than others, some of us are born into families and communities with way more resources available to them, to nurture and grow healthy happy humans. So while we focus on community and its potential to nurture and heal, let’s not forget that until we really take on the social injustices that continue to prevail in Wales, the UK and beyond; until we make addressing the social determinants of health and of mental health – ie poverty inequality, racism, fear etc – all governments’ absolute top priority – we will still see more people needing mental and physical health support intervention and treatment.

And awareness weeks with focus on community will come and go, and many communities that really need a break will remain in exactly the same position, as the platitudes slip down the algorithms on our social media timelines.

The way to mend our broken NHS is not to make it work harder. It is to reduce demand. That means helping people live healthier, better lives – and that means multi-generational, multi-government-term commitment to stop reducing people’s life chances before they are even born.

As part of our campaign for Mental Health Awareness Week, we’re gathering feedback on what community means to you – let us know your thoughts here.