Content Warning: This blog discusses topic which viewers may find upsetting, including discussing issues around self-harm and suicide among minors. If you are a young person struggling with your mental health, support is available on the YoungMinds website.

In this blog, we look at the rising issue of mental health crises among children both in recent years and particularly since the onset of the pandemic.

The effects of lockdown on mental health have frequently been in the headlines...

Today is International Women’s Day (IWD), a day celebrating the achievements of women and demanding full gender equality. In this blog, we take a quick look at IWD’s purpose and history and its meaning today.

We would like to warn readers from the beginning that this blog discusses some sensitive and potentially upsetting topics.

International Women’s Day has a long and rich history, which can be traced back to women’s marches through New York in 1908 demanding voting...

Some of our recent work has looked at the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination programme and the lower rates of uptake among ethnic minorities. In this blog we are going to look at topics which have so far received less coverage.

In recent months, we have been working on promoting awareness and education about vaccination and highlighting disparities levels of uptake. As part of this work, we are now going to take a look at some of the research on figures about levels of vaccine uptake among...

In the next of our Covid-19 vaccines series, we take a look at the issues around lower uptake among ethnic minorities, examine the causes of this problem and look for solutions. We would like to note that data on vaccine uptake is only starting to emerge, so it is too early to have a full picture.

As the Coronavirus vaccine roll-out continues fears that uptake would be lower among ethnic minorities are increasingly being confirmed.

Just 57% of BAME respondents in a December survey for the...

On 20^th January 2020 Meridian Wellbeing hosted the third of its Tackling Hate Crime webinars with the Chinese Association of Tower Hamlets, with Member of Parliament Sarah Owen speaking.

“It is clear that everyone at Meridian Wellbeing and CATH are hugely committed to tackling hate crime and the impacts on our community. We need to see greater support groups like them, so more people can access the fantastic mental health support and work they do” - Sarah Owen MP.

Since the...

In the second part of our mini-series on the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccines we look at the facts, controversies and misconceptions.

In recent months, the United Kingdom has approved and begun to roll-out the Coronavirus vaccine.

By September, it is hoped that the vaccine will have been offered to everybody. This would pave the way for the population as a whole to be immunised from Covid-19, offering a way out of lockdown.

Some of the details of what vaccination is, how it works, how...

In this blog we wanted to shine a light on the experiences of those who use our services from their perspective, and showing what matters to them.

Last year, the Chinese Mental Health Association (CMHA), a charity with a nearly three decade-long history faced the dilemma of how to respond to the UK’s national lockdown.

The broad range of services we ran were almost entirely provided in-person, with people typically meeting up in groups. With the lockdown introduced to prevent...

In December, we hosted the second and third of our Wellbeing Days and a Festive Fun Day on 29^th December 2020.

To round off a year like no other, we offered a number of additional activities beyond those normally on offer from Meridian Wellbeing.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have created a new website and moved our services online – so that people have access to activities and resources to support their wellbeing during lockdowns.

Later in the year, we put on the first...

In conjunction with our upcoming Digital Inclusion project, this blog looks at the ‘Digital Divide’ in the UK and its impact on wellbeing during the Covid-19 crisis and the third lockdown. 

When the country first entered into lockdown last Spring it quickly became clear that these changes would have a major impact.

While essential for protecting public health during the crisis, it was clear that this ‘new normal’ would have significant consequences for...

In this first of our mini-series on the Covid-19 vaccines, we give an overview of what a vaccine is, the existing vaccines and our work relating to the pandemic.

In the last couple of months there’s been a lot of talk about the Covid-19 vaccine which is currently being rolled out in the UK.

With the announcement of a new national lockdown on 4^th January 2021, we now have a new national target for the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines which is currently increasing its pace.

As a...