At McHale & Co, we are proud to support Mental Health Awareness Week 2025 and recognise that the theme of ‘community’ offers an opportunity to highlight the importance of building meaningful relationships and strong community networks for mental health and wellbeing both within our firm and in our support for our clients.

The 5 Cs of mental health provide a way that is well structured and helpful to have wellbeing and resilience part of our everyday routine. They form the base of mental and emotional health: Connection, Coping, Calmness, Care, and Compassion. By incorporating them into our daily routine, they can create the most perfect plan for stress management, improving relationships, and fostering personal growth. By learning about the 5 Cs and using them, it is possible to achieve significant improvements toward wellbeing and interacting well with others.

Those of us experiencing mental illness live in an unequal society. There are no two ways about it. Stigma. Discrimination. Lack of support. Limited access to housing, employment and social security. It doesn’t make good reading. Some things are moving in the right direction. We should have a new Mental Health Act soon, after over four decades of waiting. The NHS is working hard on a community model of mental health care and stigma continues to decrease around mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Rising numbers of us continue to be detained under an outdated Mental Health Act. And amid a cost-of-living crisis, the government is considering billions of pounds worth of cuts to the social security system.

Internally, we are improving our approach to provide support to each other and to ensure that work does not become overwhelming for our staff.

We hope that by being calm and showing our care and compassion for our clients, we can make a connection with them and help to cope with their issues.