People in Oxfordshire will be encouraged to share their lived experiences as part of a new year-long storytelling campaign being launched on World Mental Health Day by Oxfordshire County Council.

The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day is ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World'.

The new storytelling campaign aims to give a voice to people in Oxfordshire that may face these inequalities and provide different perspectives of residents, support workers and volunteers.

Councillor Mark Lygo, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for public health said: “Our social circumstances, the environment where we live, learn, work and play, can all affect our mental wellbeing.

“One of our top priorities as a cabinet at Oxfordshire County Council is to tackle the inequalities faced by so many across the county.

“But as we now begin returning to some normality, we have a real opportunity to tackle these inequalities and ensure good mental wellbeing is accessible to everybody. Storytelling allows us to learn from another person’s experience and it can shape, strengthen or challenge our opinions and values.”

The campaign will help the council to better understand mental wellbeing needs in Oxfordshire, the impact that existing work has on residents, and help shape better mental health and wellbeing support in the future.