Hi, how are you? How are things? How are you doing?
Three of the most common ways we start conversations with people — those we know very well and those we may have just met. But funnily enough, some of the most common responses we hear, in Ireland anyway, are:
I’m grand. All good, yeah. Good, thanks, you?
If we take those responses at face value, every time we hear them, we would be led to believe a very different picture of our nation’s mental health and wellbeing. However, this year’s World Mental Health Day asks us to look a little deeper. The chosen theme is Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change.
Sharing Experiences, Making Changes
“We are what we are because we have been what we have been, and what is needed for solving the problems of human life and motives is not moral estimates but more knowledge“
– Sigmund Freud
The key areas of the campaign focus on those who are experts by experience.
The day itself marks the significance of those with lived experience of mental health challenges. It supports them in sharing their rich, authentic insights into the struggles and difficulties of living with mental health conditions and in using these experiences to help shape policy into practice.
There is a significant shift in moving away from isolating, institutional models of care towards an inclusive approach to healing and recovery within communities, reducing stigma for those accessing support services across the globe.
Meaningful change begins with listening to those who understand these experiences first–hand, recognising their knowledge and ensuring they have a say in shaping the support, services and decisions that affect their lives.
Not Just a Day on the Calendar
World Mental Health Day, 10 October, marks an important opportunity to raise awareness, highlight challenges and make space for voices and experiences to be heard. But the importance of mental health extends well beyond a single date.
For our student community, we wanted to carry that intention into the days that follow, creating opportunities for reflection and action.
Supporting the Community Beyond 10 October
This World Mental Health Day, we’re taking a slightly different approach by acting beyond the day itself.
The lens we have chosen looks at five qualities that invite us to listen, reflect and act on the strengths, relationships and values that support our mental health.
These five qualities, drawn from the Positive Youth Development framework (Lerner et. al., 2011), are Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character and Caring.
Taking inspiration from the ‘real change’ element of the theme itself and mixing it with just enough positive psychology to promote a sense of thriving, we have shared a reflective five-day prompt and action toolkit.
Starting on 12 October and running until 16 October, the five-day invitation is to take time to notice what contributes to our mental health and supports our wellbeing. It also encourages us to be mindful of how small actions, amid our busy lives, can add up to meaningful change.
Our five-day reflective toolkit encourages us to take intentional steps to build confidence in our abilities, show kindness to ourselves and others, draw on our coping strategies, act in line with our values, and nurture the relationships that help us feel connected and supported.
When We Ask, Do We Listen?
We don’t always find ourselves at the right time or in the right place to pause and really hear the answer to that simple but important question:
How are you?
This World Mental Health Day, maybe one of the biggest changes we can make for ourselves is to turn that question inward now and again and really listen to the response.
Some days, we might confidently say back:
I’m grand. All good. Great, yeah!
And other days we may not.
And that’s okay too.
Author
Sarah Curran, Assistant Professor (Wellbeing)
References
World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) (no date). Lived experiences: real voices, real change. Available at: https://wmhdofficial.com/ (Accessed: 6 October 2026).
Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V. and Benson, J. B. (2011). ‘Positive youth development: research and applications for promoting thriving in adolescence’, Advances in Child Development and Behaviour, 41, pp.1–17. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-386492-5.00001-4.
