#Upliftingimage digital photography competition

After the success of last year’s digital photo competition, we would like to invite you to take part in this year competition to support World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2019 and the national Time to Change campaign.

One in four people will be affected by mental illness in any year, and around one in ten children experience a mental health problem at any one time (that is three pupils in the average school classroom). We hope through our competition to help raise awareness of mental health issues within the community, particularly in schools.

This year we are running a competition themed “Body image – how we think and feel about our bodies.” Having body image concerns is a relatively common experience and can be a risk factor for mental health problems. Research has found that higher body dissatisfaction is associated with a poorer quality of life, psychological distress and the risk of unhealthy eating behaviours and eating disorders. The photos can include exercise activities, healthy eating or even a walk in the park.

New online surveys were conducted in March 2019 and the results highlighted that: 

• One in five adults felt shame, and 19% felt disgusted because of their body image in the last year. 
• Among teenagers, 37% felt upset, and 31% felt ashamed in relation to their body image.
• Just over one third of adults said they had ever felt anxious or depressed because of their body.

#bebodykind

This is a chance to talk positively about mental health and go into the running to win a prize. The idea is to inspire, explore and talk about it.  We want #UpliftingImage to help raise awareness of peoples connection with mental health through photography. The aim of the campaign is to get as many people to share a picture that helps to promote a better understanding of mental health.

We hope to use this collection of photographs to: promote better understanding around mental health; highlight that through support, understanding and positive messages we can help people and challenge stigma; and demonstrate that everyone has an uplifting image that can lift their mood.

We hope that this competition is something that you are interested in entering. To submit a photograph to the competition please click here .

We will hold a prize-giving afternoon on Friday 25 October at Springfield University Hospital in Tooting, attended by local media and competition winners, where we will display the winning images.  The closing date for entries is Monday 30 September 2019. 

If you have any queries about the competition, please email communications@swlstg.nhs.uk.

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