YMCA Exeter’s brand-new course: Ascend

However much it’s encouraged, talking about your mental health can be a challenge.
 
In fact, mental health charity ‘Mind’ discovered in new research that “nearly two-thirds of people surveyed in the UK (64%) say they put a brave face on to avoid talking about their mental health.”

And the tactic of bottling up appears to be highest amongst younger people with 69% of 16–24-year-olds and 72% of 25–34-year-olds surveyed reporting they’d prefer to put a brave face on than talk about their mental health.
 
To tackle this taboo, YMCA Exeter wellbeing practitioner Will Petty, joined forces with YMCA Exeter’s Group works team to move away from intense one-to-one chats and bring some light-hearted fun to mental health.
 
“I loved the rock-climbing course,” explains YMCA Exeter resident, Dan. “It was great to get out and exercise, but also looking at setting goals and how you can achieve them. It was brilliant.”

Over five-weeks, the Ascend course encouraged residents to spend an hour climbing, setting new goals every week on what they could achieve at the climbing wall. But also drawing a parallel between what they were learning through climbing and how to apply similar goal setting in their own life.
 
On finishing the course, one resident said, “It provided me with irrefutable evidence that I have the power to make changes in my life.”