Feeling Down: Looking After My Mental Health

Feeling Down is an easy-to-read, user-friendly, interactive guide developed collaboratively by people with learning disabilities, service providers, and researchers. It is designed to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities take care of their mental health with the support of their family, friends, and service providers. It includes psychoeducation on topics such as how to recognize signs of emotional ill-health, different types of mental health care providers, and what a diagnosis is. It covers emotional self- management strategies such as reaching out to others, taking a break, relaxation, getting adequate sleep, good nutrition, and physical activity.

Structured self-management planning includes creation of a “My Staying Healthy Plan,” and ongoing monitoring of one’s mood and activating strategies for emotional wellness using “My Feelings Chart and Plan.” Finally, tools are provided to help people speak to their primary care provider about getting help with their mental health. Contents are as follows.

    Part 1: What is mental health

    Part 2: How to keep yourself feeling well

    Part 3: What to do when you are worried about your mental health

    Part 4: Planning a visit to your primary care provider (GP)

    Part 5: GP Information Pack

A unique feature of this guide is creation of a “GP Packet” containing forms that can be completed by the user and given to a physician at a medical appointment. The Packet includes the person’s background information, preferred means of communication, current medications, a letter stating why they are seeking help for their mental health, and questions for the doctor.

The guide is available here: https://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/file/2529/download?token=497RvAE7

The following article written by people with disabilities describes using the guide with others in a self-help setting and the history of its development: https://openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/download/06e8b15bc3bc838713a64473718e4c30d6a55c1dec3f71ec1592aa23a5b00d8b/313697/Cronin%20Depresion%20AMHID%202107.pdf