Mental Health Awareness Week at HMP Hindley

Research from the Centre for Mental Health reveals that nine out of ten prisoners have at least one mental health or substance misuse problem. At Novus, we are committed to equipping learners with the knowledge, skills, and support they need to understand and manage their mental health and wellbeing. Addressing these challenges, ensures that learners are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to care for themselves and seek help whenever necessary both inside prison and upon release. 

In celebration of Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, the teachers and library colleagues at HMP Hindley engaged learners in various activities to spread awareness around mental health, practical ways to maintain good mental health and how to help others who may struggle with mental health issues. 
 

Reading support activities to promote mental health and wellbeing 

Throughout Mental Health Awareness Week, learners were able to read and discuss evidence-based advice on how to talk to others about mental health, upcycle old children’s board books to make art journals to record their thoughts and worries and attend talks on the benefits reading has for mental health.

These talks included the opportunity to sign up to ‘Road to Reading’, an initiative supported by The Reading Agency, which encourages learners to read for 30 minutes a week, for 10 weeks to instil a reading habit and experience the benefits it brings. Over 20 learners joined up and were given their own fiction, journalling or ‘mind manuals’ to start them off.
 

Meditation activities led by the Life Skills Peer Mentor 

Another activity that had a great impact on learners was enabling the Life Skill’s peer mentor to share his meditation techniques. As well as helping him to develop his confidence in presenting, learners benefitted greatly from being able to practise meditation with peers to feel calmer and more relaxed. This led to learners feeling safe enough to positively discuss their own experiences with mental health so that others could relate to them.

The meditation had a profound impact on learners who positively spoke about their experiences: 

"Before ... I felt like I couldn’t be bothered then we did [meditation] and it made me feel a lot more awake and made me go into a better mood.”

“Meditation Monday made me relaxed and not stressed out for the day.”

“Really got into it! I’ve taken points from how he showed us meditation skills and incorporated into my daily life in my cell.”

“Before the meditation I was amped up and it calmed me right down.”
 

The success of the meditation sessions has resulted in the planning of regular sessions for learners’ wellbeing, so that the practice can become routine for those who want to engage. 

At the end of the week, learners wrote down their best tips to maintain good mental health, which was made into a display and will be available to future learners so that they can be certain their mental health is a priority. 

The week-long event was a huge success, with one learner commenting positively:

I have learnt that mental health is being recognised in education

To keep up to date with our latest projects and initiatives, take a look at the news section.