Rural Mental Health Matters Limited

Whooop whooop!!! Here's our amazing inclusivtastic Founder & CEO Melanie Costas ~ Pink Haired Inclusivfluencer 💖 We couldn't be prouder!!! 🤗 Thank you The Lilac Review UK 🤩

People of LinkedIn behold.... Our very own Founder & CEO Melanie Costas ~ Pink Haired Inclusivfluencer 💖 Of course she WON an AWARD for Mental Health Champion of the Year! 🏆👏🌟 Oh, and we LOVE number 1 🏆💖

The Silent Mental Health Crisis No One Talks About! 😳 Today is #WorldMentalHealthDay, and it's time to talk about a hidden crisis: rural lives are at breaking point! 🚨 People living in rural communities face huge challenges and barriers to accessing support when they need it and the inequalities are wounds that cut deep! Did you know people in rural areas are at a higher risk of suicide? On top of that, they wait up to 4 times longe to see a GP and are less likely to survive cancer due to delayed diagnoses. In Yorkshire alone, 1 in 2 bowel cancers in rural areas are diagnosed too late, worsening survival chances. 😢💔 Cancer affects 1 in 2 people and around 75% of employees struggle with their mental health after a cancer diagnosis! These inequalities aren't just a UK issue they exist worldwide. We have the solutions, but we need your help. As the only organisation representing rural England and Wales, we receive NO funding. Help us build rural community wellbeing centres and launch WOW* vehicles to bring mental health support directly to those in need. *Wellbeing On Wheels. Please donate today to close the rural vs urban gap and help us save lives! 🙏 💜 https://lnkd.in/ekFBNGHH (Sources for statistics: National Rural Health Alliance, Yorkshire Cancer Research, Newcastle University) image description for inclusion: lilac poster with rural mental health matters logo top right. a circle of forget me not flowers and leaves and inside the words say rural mental health matters.

Imagine designing an event, social activity or service for a whole county, and deliberately excluding almost half of the population? 🤔 Welcome to Dorset, UK 🇬🇧 Is this the most unequal county in the whole of the UK? Virtually all 'Dorset wide' services, events, social activities, festivals etc are in the larger towns in the south of the county, Dorchester, Bournemouth or Poole. None of these southern towns are easily accessible from rural areas, in fact from where we are based, in Shaftesbury, it's a 3 to 4 hour journey to Bournemouth via multiple buses...that's each way! 46% of Dorset's population live in rural communities. The UK average is around 20%....so Dorset, where we are based is quite significantly unequal when it comes to accessing even basic essential support, or social activities! But this is not just a Dorset issue...it's a major problem for rural residents right across the UK! People living rurally face huge challenges and barriers to accessing support, facilities, events or services vs their urban counterparts. Why is that a problem? Because they feel excluded, isolated, unsupported, unseen, unheard and most of all they feel unimportant. It's no surprise then, that those living rurally are at higher risk of suicide. How is this acceptable? We are working together with Centre for Mental Health because we want to ensure there is national accountability! Our 'Rurally Inclusive Accreditation' scheme, will help make sure that those living rurally have equitable access to essential support services, they desperately need, and deserve. Enough is enough. 1 in 5 people live in rural areas and they are suffering! We cannot do this alone. Rural Mental Health Matters is the only organisation that represents the rural voice for England and Wales, yet as a social enterprise we receive NO funding! You can help us by donating via this link:https://lnkd.in/ekFBNGHH As well as the accreditation, we want to build rural wellbeing community centres and launch UK wide WOW vehicles, mobile outreach...WOW stands for Wellbeing On Wheels!

Good morning from sunny Dorset 🌞 Do you have an event this weekend, or one coming up soon? Is it inclusive? 🤔 I don't just mean for accessibility and neurodivergence....I mean is it rurally inclusive too? Is YOUR event accessible & inclusive, for the 2 largest minorities in the UK? 😳 Those living rurally and those with disabilities, are the largest minorities, who face the biggest barriers and challenges in accessing events! How are you ensuring they aren't excluded from attending your event? Need help? Our Founder and CEO can help....Melanie Costas ~ Pink Haired Warrior 💖 has her own consulting services to help you make sure your event is as accessible and inclusive as possible, as well as being rurally inclusive! You can even book a complimentary call with Melanie via this link: www.MelanieCostas.Co.Uk All profits go into tackling rural inequalities faced by the 2 largest minorities in the UK! What's not to love!? Melanie's services are available globally too, thanks to the accessibility of the internet! 🌎 📶 She can also help you make sure the marketing and promotion of your events, are more inclusive! Over 70% of websites and 55% of social media content fails to meet basic accessibility standards, leaving large portions of the internet inaccessible. This means that millions of users, especially those with disabilities, are excluded from engaging with online content, impacting everything from website navigation to social media posts. These numbers highlight a massive gap in inclusion across digital platforms, putting businesses and brands at risk of alienating audiences! 💥 image description for inclusion: photo of Melanie Costas, facing the camera smiling. She has pink hair and blue eyes wearing a pink dress with strawberries on and a bright pink cardigan. Behind her is an outside terraced area at a venue for an event called The Great Geek Together she attended 6th September that was the most inclusive event she's been to, she was so impressed!

Calling ALL Australian LinkedIn users 📣 🇦🇺 This is a national emergency!🚨 30% of Australians who live and work outside of cities are being denied the basic human right of health! They are dying YOUNGER than people in cities and have HIGHER RATES of chronic disease, mental illness and SUICIDE. 😢💔 Rural Australians bring in 2/3rds of Australia’s export earnings, 50% of the tourism income and produce over 90% of Australia’s food! Governments spend $848 per person each year LESS on Rural Australians than those who live in the city. 🆘️ Rural health has been neglected for too long in policy, budgets and priority setting. Commonwealth and State investments are neither coordinated nor sustained. It’s time to end the neglect. We at Rural Mental Health Matters Limited support our Australian rural communities & stand in solidarity with them! If you live in Australian, PLEASE help! ➡️ Please sign petition to prioritise rural health in policies and budgets now! 🙏 Link: https://lnkd.in/dw7QGEKP Petition CLOSES on the 9th of October *just 19 days left* ~ So come on LinkedIn ~ Do your thing! Thank you to Paul Vittles for bringing this to our attention! ⚠️

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day Today you're going to see lots of posts Telling people to "just reach out" Or "you're not alone" When all year, mostly all the same people posting these, do absolutely nothing. Say absolutely nothing 🤐 Today I want you to listen to just one voice, the voice in this video....from our Founder & CEO Melanie Costas ~ Pink Haired Warrior 💖 I want you to take note of what she is saying and change ONE thing! Just one. Whether that is to go online and take the Zero Suicide Alliance FREE training (available worldwide) 🆓️ 🌎 Or, to send someone a text, make a call, acknowledge a stranger in the street and smile, say hello, good morning/afternoon/evening to them. Because suicide prevention isn't a 'nice to have' it's a must have. And people living in rural communities face the biggest barriers and challenges to accessing support when they need it. Longer waits to see a GP. Further to travel to get support. Higher costs to accessing support. They feel isolated, unseen, unheard and unimportant. Isolation is a massive risk factor in suicide! So please listen, share and comment for reach. This is important and it may just save a life! Thank you. video description for accessibility: Melanie Costas has pale pink hair and is wearing grey framed glasses and a blue t shirt. She is talking directly to camera and shares slides at the end about Zero Suicide Alliance training.

Calling All In Rural Communities and Those Who Care About Making Rural Health Care More Equitable! 📣 Please see original post from Rural Health Compass & have your say! 💬🗨

New this week....listen to our Founder and CEO Melanie Costas ~ Pink Haired Warrior 💖 chatting to Founder of Rural Health Compass Veronika Rasic In the UK, a 5th of the population live in rural communities. They face huge challenges and barriers to accessing even the most basic essential support services. Virtually *all* support services set up head quarters in larger towns and cities, expecting those living rurally to somehow magically get to them! 😳 Isolation is a massive risk factor in suicide. Isn't it time to fund the hubs & wellbeing on wheels WOW vehicles? Isn't it time that rural inclusion becomes more than just an illusion?

Have you heard about our mental health services? Check out this carousel for all the details!! Link here, to find out more: https://lnkd.in/eg2HXSSG image description of carousel for accessibility: 5 pages of purple slides. page 1 picture of Amanda Whitlock, smiling facing the camera. page 2 showing all the awards Amanda has won. page 3 has same photo of Amanda on. page 4 has selection of courses available. page 5 has contact details on.