My photo of Santa with baubles
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Scroll down for Christmas 2014 ideas
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With Christmas just 3 weeks away, here are some gift ideas on a mental health theme. They might be gifts for a friend or family member who’s managing a mental health problem themselves. Or perhaps that’s you and you want to help others understand the issues a bit more, or need ideas for gifts on a budget.
If you have more suggestions, please tweet me or add them to the comments below. Here are some suggestions I’ve received from the lovely twitter people so far (and here are lots of interesting book recommendations too).
The following gift ideas are covered:
- Christmas cards from mental health charities
- Subscriptions and memberships
- Different ways to make charitable donations
- Gift voucher ideas
- Free and low cost gift ideas with a mental health theme if you’re on a budget or prefer to do stuff rather than buy stuff (my favourite way of giving gifts)
- General well being and quirky gift ideas
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Christmas cards:
- Rethink Mental Illness – £3 pack of 8 cards (plus £1 postage)
- Sane – Packs of 10 ranging from £2.95 to £3.95, with free postage for orders over £15
Here’s a website (Combined Charities Christmas Shops) which sells Christmas cards and goodies for all sorts of different charities.
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Subscriptions & memberships:
Why not give a magazine subscription or membership of a mental health charity to spread mental health awareness?
- £10 – One in Four magazine subscription – Just £10 for 4 glossy magazines a year! “Want real life stories from people who’ve been through it and lived to tell the tale? Want the latest news, views and opinions? One in Four is a glossy full colour quarterly 32-page quarterly magazine written by people with mental health difficulties who lived lived through it and found ways around it. It’s the perfect guide to getting stuff in your life sorted.”
- Membership of one of the mental health charities:
- £6 (unwaged) or £26 – Mind annual membership – “Become a Mind member and we’ll keep you up-to-date with all of the latest mental health news. We’ll let you know about Mind events and groups in your area. And we’ll support you to get your voice heard. A standard one-year membership costs £26. A one-year membership if you are unemployed, receiving benefits, retired or a full-time student costs £6.” Members receive the quarterly Mind Membership News magazine; regular email newsletters; a 10% discount on Mind’s publications; the chance to vote for our trustees and to become a trustee yourself; Mind membership card.
- £2 monthly or £24 – Rethink Mental Illness membership – “As a member you can help to make a difference and be involved in many different ways. As a member you’ll get an enamel badge & welcome pack, an invitation to our spectacular annual event, National Members’ Day, our quarterly membership magazine Your Voice, opportunities to have your opinions and ideas heard by people who help shape mental health policy & involvement in the governance of Rethink Mental Illness.”
- £10 – 3 Rethink sleep packs (or £65 for 20 sleep packs) “You can probably relate to the experience of a restless night’s sleep and the effect this can have on your mood, emotions and management of day-to-day tasks. You may have even said, ‘all you need is a good night’s sleep’ – more often than not, this advice is true. With your help we can help a person with mental illness at their lowest point; they can be welcomed into a crisis house as an alternative to hospital admission. Here, they are in a calm and safe environment. And now with the introduction of Sleep Packs, we’re hopeful that people will have the best possible start to their recovery. It costs just £3 to fill each Sleep Pack with these simple but crucial items, please give the gift of sleep and help improve someone’s life. Thank you.” Each sleep pack contains an eye mask, ear plugs, lavender essential oil and bubble bath, a sachet of milky drink plus top ten tips for a better night’s sleep.
- Subscription to a mindfulness site – for example Headspace (you can try for free beforehand)
The Big Give Challenge #TBGchallenge
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Charitable donations:
One idea for a Christmas present is to make a donation to a mental health charity on someone else’s behalf. You’d then give them a Christmas card which mentions your donation.
- Buying presents through certain sites means a donation will go to a mental health charity – for instance, Give as You Live (twitter @giveasyoulive) – “Shop online at your favourite stores and raise funds for charity – at no extra cost, just by shopping online!”
- Sometimes a donation will be doubled – eg through organisations like The Big Give which have pots of matched funding that open at given times (and run out, so you have to get in quickly when you hear they’ve opened!). Here is a list of charities The Big Give currently matches funds for, including ones with a mental health theme in the UK and overseas.
- Make a one off donation or a regular donation to a mental health charity, such as:
- Mind
- Rethink Mental Illness – one off or regular donation
- Sane – “Please give a gift to improve mental health. Each £10 enables one person to receive the precious gift of 30 minutes personal and emotional support, helping them on their journey from crisis to recovery. To thank you for your generosity, SANE will send you a Black Dog Campaign #StopStigma wristband for each donation that you make.”
- There will also be many local mental health charities you can donate to. Please let me have details if you’d like one added.
- Here’s one I spotted today: “5 Quid for Life is a small charitable trust which provides financial support to people with mental health problems who have lost their benefits as a result of the UK government’s welfare reforms.” (twitter @5quidforlife) [NB: The organisation says it’s too small to register with the Charities Commission, so I’m not sure about regulation or transparency or the establishment of the trust.]
- Please bear in mind that, if you are a UK tax payer, your purchase or donation may be increased by HMRC by an extra 25% if you make a gift aid declaration at the time you make your donation.
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Gift vouchers:
- An NHS prescription prepayment certificate – A humorous and serious suggestion from Larlot (twitter @CharmandersFire), as an alternative to an M&S or Boots gift card! If you’re not entitled to free prescriptions, a prescription costs £7.85 per item, but a 3 or 12 month PPC covers all your prescriptions for that period, no matter how many you need. £29.10 for 3 months or £104 for 12 months.
- Buying a voucher for something that will make a difference. There are lots of shops and online services that offer vouchers for anything from a massage (lots of tweeps recommended this one!), or haircut to a visit somewhere unusual like a bird of prey sanctuary.
- Home-made gift vouchers. This is something you’ve paid for (or will pay for when it takes place) and write out yourself in a card, such as:
- a cleaner to visit and help your friend or family member get on top of their cleaning
- personal trainer to come round for a few sessions, to get your friend and family member started if they’ve put on weight and are having trouble getting motivated or putting together a plan.
- Personal IOUs (see below).
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Mental health books, CDs and DVDs:
Lots of interesting books recommended as Christmas gifts by some of the lovely twitter people are included here. What are your ideas for a good mental health book gift? That might be:
- A biography or life story of someone living with a mental health problem or who’s got through adversity – either to help the recipient understand more about your (or someone they know’s) mental health problems, or to provide inspiration from someone who’s overcome adversity
- A book on a practical skill they’ve said they want to learn
- A self-help book that you think the person might find useful or inspiring (though that’s probably a delicate balance – I once received a Jane Fonda work out video and, whilst I did have a few pounds to lose, it wasn’t necessarily the present I wanted to receive! It might be best to keep the self-help books to ones you’ve discussed with your friend or family member and which they’ve shown an interest in reading)
Science Museum: Mind maps – stories from psychology
- An uplifting arts book
- Something on their hobby or special interest
Free and low cost gift ideas:
- Personal IOUs: Give an IOU slip or card for something you can do (a skill you have) that your friend or family member will value. For instance, an IOU offering/promising:
- for them to come round for tea and cake, or a Sunday roast
- to do their washing up 5 times
- to help them go shopping / choose a new mobile phone contract /change utility provider
- to take their dog for a walk
- to knit them a jazzy scarf
- to go out to a free event or venue, such as a city farm, park, festival, museum, talk or event (such as this one from Dr Tom Werner, Mind Maps: stories from psychology, on at the Science Museum in London)
Be imaginative! The thought you put into choosing what to offer to make the IOU personal, and the time it will take you to fulfill your promise, is what shows you care. And take responsibility for setting a time and date and organising the whole thing to make sure it does go ahead!
- Challenge yourself by signing up yourself and a friend to a fundraising event with one of the mental health charities. There are lots of ways to get involved (or you can organise something yourself,) and it can be a fun way to get out and do something unusual and possibly get fit! Here are some ideas from the Mental Health Foundation.
- Simple hand-made crafts. Don’t worry about them being perfect as it’s the personal touch and the time and effort you’ve put in that counts. For example:
- Hand-made Christmas cards. You can often buy packs of 10 blank cards and envelopes in pound shops that you can decorate yourself with a bit of glue, glitter and imagination.
- Hand-decorating a Christmas bauble. You could even make a different one each year, so a little collection grows.
- Hand-made sweets or edible Christmas decorations strung with ribbon to hang on the tree.
- Free e-books. There are thousands of books available free of charge and you can download them onto any computer (you don’t need a Kindle or other e-book reader). These might be about a specific diagnosis, a real life story or general well being. You could download these for your friend or family member, or send or give them a link to suitable ones. You’ll have done the research or running around, which will be appreciated.
- Plants. If you’ve got a window box, garden or allotment, you can often dig up the odd plant or two to give away as an inexpensive gift.
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General well being and quirky gift ideas:
- Give the gift of comedy, such as these DVD suggestions from Seaneen Molloy (twitter @Brain_Opera) or tickets to a live stand up show. Some places have open mic nights which are free – and you never know, the acts could be really good!
- Dopamine molecule earrings (recommended by twitter psychiatrist @Dopamine_Diva)
- My favourite: lavender bath soak!
- Socks. You can never go wrong with socks.
- A SAD (seasonal affective disorder) light box or sunrise wake up clock
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Hopefully that’ll have given you a few ideas for gifts with a mental health theme. Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below – or tweet me!
Finally, some tips for good gift giving:
- ‘Tis the season to be jolly. Don’t leave it till the last minute so you’re stressed and rushing. Enjoy the pleasure of getting gifts for people. Either gather together gifts slowly over time – or go out one afternoon and get everything in one go then be done with it.
- The “perfect” gift. It’s not important to get the “perfect” gifts for every one. What matters is you’ve thought of that person and got them something, no matter how small or how little it cost to buy.
- Children. When buying for related children, remember they won’t know how much you spent: just make sure you give the same number and same size gifts!
- Your time, thought and attention are the best gifts you can give.
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Updated ideas from the lovely twitter people for Christmas 2014!
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