World Mental Health Day 2026
October 09, 2026Posted by:
World Mental Health Day is a shared global moment of reflection. This year's theme resonates strongly with our work at PeoplePlus and our commitment to helping people move forward.
In this blog, Head of Wellbeing at PeoplePlus, Marina Cadman, shares her perspective on why listening and understanding are the foundations of support that make a lasting difference in people's lives.
"Too many people have spent years telling their story without ever feeling heard.
They have attended appointments, completed assessments, been referred between services and answered the same questions again and again. Yet many are still left feeling that nobody has really listened to what matters to them, what is happening in their life, what worries them or what they think might help.
This year’s World Mental Health Day, on Saturday 10 October, has the theme Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change. It resonates strongly with us at PeoplePlus, because listening is where good support begins.
Over the years, one thing has become increasingly clear to me. People rarely remember the forms they completed, the targets they achieved or the service they accessed, but they do remember how they were treated. They remember whether somebody took the time to understand them, whether they felt judged or accepted, and whether they were treated as a problem to be solved or as a person with strengths, hopes and challenges of their own.
When people feel heard, trust grows, relationships develop, and people become more willing to engage, to ask for help and to believe that positive change is possible. We see this across every service we deliver.
Listening is how change happens
In our employability programmes, conversations about confidence, purpose and wellbeing are often as important as discussions about CVs and interviews. Participants tell us about the anxiety that builds before a phone call, about health concerns, about confidence worn down by rejection, and about their fear of what a change in income could mean.
Within our justice services, listening is central to how we design and deliver support. People preparing for release tell us that what makes the difference is having the right foundations in place for the weeks and months after release day. Their experiences have shaped our approach, with tutors and support staff focusing on practical preparation and future planning, so that people can overcome barriers and take positive steps towards employment and stability.
Many carers tell us that nobody has asked how they are in years. People who give so much of their time to looking after others often find their own needs overlooked or put on the back burner, and a carer who is exhausted and isolated will find it very hard to keep caring without being cared for themselves.
In secure healthcare settings, relationships built on trust and respect can be fundamental to a patient’s recovery and rehabilitation. People who have had little control over their own lives tell us that being heard is part of recovery itself.
We have learned that assumptions can be one of the biggest barriers to effective support. Two people with the same health condition or diagnosis may have very different experiences, ambitions and support needs, which is why we work alongside individuals to co-produce action plans, taking time to understand what matters most to them, the barriers they face and the strengths they bring. Listening helps us move beyond labels and focus on the person.
Every service we deliver at PeoplePlus is different, but the principle stays the same: people are more likely to engage and succeed when they feel seen, heard and valued.
From being heard to shaping change
Listening only matters if it leads somewhere, and people are quick to recognise the difference between being listened to and being heard. Being heard means knowing that your experience counts, and that what you share helps shape decisions, influences services and creates something better for you and for the people who come after you.
In practice, that means involving the people we support in shaping the services that affect them, acting on what they tell us and closing the loop, so people can see that their voice and experience are making a difference.
Case study: listening to unpaid carers in Gloucestershire
Through our co-production work with unpaid carers in Gloucestershire, carers told us what they needed most: more opportunities, and different ways, to connect with people who understood their experiences. Many described caring responsibilities that came with feelings of isolation and of being overlooked.
Through a letter-writing exercise, carers shared their experiences in their own words with peers and professionals. The honesty and insight in those letters brought out things that a standard survey or consultation is unlikely to capture, and the exercise also created a sense of connection, because carers no longer felt they had to explain or justify their situation to people who didn’t understand.
Those conversations went on to inform service improvements, feed into discussions with NHS partners and help shape future support for carers.
84% of carers who took part described the experience positively. As one carer put it: “If organisations/services were as flexible and supportive in providing reasonable adjustments as the organisation running the sessions, then it would help disabled people and carers immensely.”
It shows what can happen when people are given the time, space and confidence to share their lived experience.
Listening to our own people
We hold ourselves to the same standard internally, because the colleagues who sit alongside people at their most difficult moments need to be heard too. Colleague voice shapes how we work, through focus groups that feed into decisions and through Mental Health First Aiders who are there to listen all year round. An organisation that listens to its own people is better placed to listen to the people it serves.
This World Mental Health Day, we would invite everyone to pause and reflect on the power of listening to understand, before reaching for a response or a solution.
Whether it is a participant navigating unemployment, someone rebuilding their life after time in the justice system, a carer balancing the needs of others with their own wellbeing, a patient in recovery or a colleague working alongside us, everyone wants the same thing: to be heard.
Real change often starts with a conversation in which somebody feels safe enough to tell their story, and somebody else takes the time to listen.
After many years in this work, I still find that giving someone my full attention is the most useful place to start".
October 09, 2026Posted by:
