Mental Health Awareness Week 2027

What is Mental Health Awareness Week?

Mental Health Awareness Week 2027 runs from Monday 10 May 2027 to Sunday 16 May 2027.

Mental Health Awareness Week is the UK’s biggest mental health campaign. It is run by the Mental Health Foundation, the charity that started the week in 2001 and still sets its dates and theme each year. Every May, schools, workplaces, NHS trusts, councils, sports clubs and community groups across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use the week to talk openly about mental health, reduce stigma and point people towards support.

It is easy to confuse with World Mental Health Day, but the two are separate. World Mental Health Day is a single international day on 10 October, led globally by the World Federation for Mental Health. Mental Health Awareness Week is a UK week in May, with its own theme chosen by the Mental Health Foundation. If you are searching for “world mental health week”, the May event is almost certainly the one you mean.

When is Mental Health Awareness Week and what is the theme?

The week always falls in May and runs from Monday to Sunday. In recent years it has taken the second full week of the month: 13 to 19 May in 2024, 12 to 18 May in 2025 and 11 to 17 May in 2026. The 2027 dates of 10 to 16 May follow that pattern, but the Mental Health Foundation had not published official 2027 dates when this page was last updated, so check its website before you lock in plans.

The 2027 theme has not been announced yet. The Foundation usually confirms the theme several months before the week, and it is often revealed in the autumn or winter beforehand. The most recent theme, for 2026, was Action, summed up as “Action: for yourself, for someone else, for all of us”. The idea was that awareness on its own is not enough, and that small practical steps, from a walk with a friend to writing to your MP, make a real difference.

Earlier themes give a sense of the range the week covers: community, movement, anxiety, loneliness, nature, kindness and body image have all been the focus of recent years, and older weeks looked at stress, relationships, sleep, alcohol and friendship.

A short history

The early weeks concentrated on a single issue each year, such as stress or relationships, with the Foundation publishing a research report alongside the campaign. As media interest grew, the week became a fixture in the calendars of employers, schools and the NHS. The Foundation says that in 2025 roughly four in five adults in the UK were aware of the week and more than two in five employers hosted an event to mark it. Twenty-five years on, the week is still owned and coordinated by the same charity, which is why its official resources, hashtags and theme all come from mentalhealth.org.uk rather than from a government department.

What happens in the UK during the week

Because the week is so widely recognised, activity happens at every level. The Mental Health Foundation publishes a free supporter pack with posters, social media graphics and an action guide tied to the theme. NHS trusts and GP practices promote their talking therapies services and self-help tools. Councils and libraries run drop-in sessions and wellbeing walks. Broadcasters and newspapers carry features and personal stories, and MPs and MSPs raise mental health in Westminster and Holyrood. Supporters also fundraise for the Foundation through sponsored walks, bake sales and tea and talk events.

Most of what happens is local and small-scale: a staff lunch where people actually talk, a primary school assembly, a football club opening its doors for a walk-and-talk. That is the point. The Foundation describes the week as a prompt for action that can carry on long after the Sunday.

How to take part at work

The Mental Health Foundation’s statistics show that about one in five adults in England has a common mental health condition such as anxiety or depression, so most teams will include people living with one. Practical ideas for employers include:

• Share the official supporter pack and theme with staff a week in advance, so the week does not arrive as a surprise.
• Hold a short session where senior leaders talk honestly about their own wellbeing. This does more to reduce stigma than any poster.
• Remind people how to reach your employee assistance programme, occupational health or mental health first aiders, and check the details are current.
• Build the theme into existing meetings rather than adding events. A ten-minute check-in at the start of a team meeting costs nothing.
• Review flexible working, workload and return-to-work policies, which affect mental health far more than a single week of activity.
• Organise a lunchtime walk or a tea and talk fundraiser for the Mental Health Foundation.

How to take part in schools

Schools and colleges mark the week with assemblies, PSHE lessons and form-time activities built around the theme. Ideas that work at primary and secondary level:

• Run an assembly explaining that everyone has mental health, in the same way everyone has physical health, and that it goes up and down.
• Give pupils a simple vocabulary for feelings and show them who they can talk to in school, with names and faces on display.
• Link the theme to something physical: a daily mile, time in the school garden, or a kindness challenge.
• Include staff. Teachers and support staff need the same conversations, and pupils notice when adults model them.
• Point older pupils to Childline (0800 1111) and to the school counsellor or pastoral team, and tell parents what the school is doing so they can continue it at home.

Schools that want a younger focus can also use Children’s Mental Health Week in February, which is aimed specifically at pupils.

Looking after your own mental health

You do not need an organisation to take part. The NHS recommends five steps to mental wellbeing: connect with other people, be physically active, learn new skills, give to others, and pay attention to the present moment. Picking one of these and doing it every day of the week is a realistic goal, and it matches the spirit of the most recent theme.

If you are struggling, you can refer yourself to NHS talking therapies in England without seeing a GP, and your GP can arrange support anywhere in the UK. If you need help urgently, the NHS advises calling 111 (24 hours a day), ringing Samaritans free on 116 123, or texting SHOUT to 85258. If you have seriously harmed yourself or feel you are about to, call 999 or go to A&E.

Related awareness days

• World Mental Health Day, 10 October, the international day with a theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health.
• Time to Talk Day in February, a single day built around starting conversations about mental health.
• Stress Awareness Month in April, which leads straight into Mental Health Awareness Week.
• Mental Health Awareness Month, the US observance for the whole of May, which is why American resources sometimes appear in UK searches.
• World Suicide Prevention Day, 10 September.