4 people are making owls at the MindWell stall at Kinder Leeds Festival. Jane, the workshop leader, has a light skin tone, short red hair and wears glasses and a black a grey jumper. Siobhan, from MindWell, has a light skin tone and long blonde hair and a blue jumper. A child has a pale skin tone and long, blonde hair, and the last person has long, curly dark hair and has their back to us. They are all leaning over the table as Jane demonstrates owl making.

The Mental Health Foundation (MHF) has launched a free library of images that represent real people looking after their mental health. They asked people how they felt about images used for positive mental health stories, and MindWell team members shared their insights. As an online resource, we understand how challenging it can be to find suitable photos for our website, newsletter and social media.

As the MHF says,

“remember that good mental health is not about achieving perfection – positive well-being can be achieved in different ways, in different places, by different people.”

Mental Health Foundation, 2024

When the Foundation held a competition to encourage image entries of real people doing the positive things that can benefit mental health, we knew we had to enter!

Go and explore the photo library on the MHF website and look out for our MindWell photo. (Hint: if you’ve met our team member Siobhan or made a #GiveAHoot! owl, you might know we like to get creative here at MindWell.)