Talking about your mental health

Busy Cardiff Christmas shoppers will be able to relax with a free hot drink while learning more about mental health at a pop-up shop run by experts from the University's National Centre for Mental Health (NCMH).

HeadSpace: The Mental Health Pop-Up Shop will be situated in a unit opposite the Sainsbury's store on Cardiff's Queen Street.

The shop will be open for a special day of free events from 10am – 3pm on Thursday 12^th December, with speakers including Guardian science writer Dr Dean Burnett, a prize draw, and performances and exhibitions around the theme of mental health.

"The aim of our pop-up shop is to encourage people to talk and think about mental health issues in a different way," explains Professor Craddock, Director of the NCMH.

"We want to explain the important role that the public can play in our research, which can help improve life for thousands of people affected by mental illness in the future.

"We know that Christmas can be a very stressful time of year for many people. We hope that being able to pop in and put their feet up for a few moments with a hot drink while enjoying our talks and performances will be helpful," he added.

The event will also feature information stands from a host of Welsh mental health organisations including Cardiff Mind, Time to Change Wales, The Alzheimer's Society and Hafal.

The NCMH at Cardiff University is working to learn more about the causes of mental illness with the aim of improving diagnosis and treatment for the future. To do this it aims to recruit 6000 volunteers with mental health conditions for its research.

To find out more about HeadSpace or to take part in the NCMH research, visit www.ncmh.info/headspace.