Another “mental health” promotion stall
Another “mental health” promotion stall I’ve sat behind many tables in public places in my time, ready, waiting to hand over leaflets, pens and keyrings. I’ve visited many stalls collected mints, a stress ball, useful information packs (amazing packs by PRIMHE), a chocolate orange, and cupcakes and most importantly post-it notes. The people on the stalls have been friendly, warm, kind, tired and bored, as you would expect to find. The reason is we want to connect with people who might benefit from the services we provide. We want to talk to the general public - people who don’t come to our services, or might, or have previously, and might again. It’s a recruitment campaign hidden behind smiles and free gifts. A well-meaning campaign, but is it effective and are we missing something obvious? As I walked away from talking to the stall holders (my organisation had a stall there too) I reflected. The people I knew on the stalls had clients, new clients every day and wee...