Bermuda Hospitals Board today announces the launch of a poetry competition ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week in October. Young people between the ages of 12 and 18 are being invited to write poems of up to 26 lines for the theme ‘Mental Health and Young People in a Changing World’. The poetry competition is free to enter, and there will be gift certificate prizes.

The competition opens today and the deadline is Tuesday 16 October 2018. Winners will be announced on Friday 19 October at the launch of the MindFrame PhotoVoice Exhibition at the Bermuda Society of Arts, an exhibition of photographs and art by people who use services at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute.

Natasha Lisa Kalloo, Registered Mental Health Nurse in Child & Adolescent Services and member of the Mental Health Awareness Week Committee comments: “The theme is Mental Health and Young People in a Changing World. During Mental Health Awareness Week we will talk about a number of issues impacting young people, but we wanted our young people in Bermuda to have a voice too. This poetry competition gives a creative way for them to speak about life in their own words and how it impacts their mental health – what makes them happy, sad, anxious, or depressed, for example and how they manage these emotions. There is no entry fee, and we want to encourage individual as well as school entries. We hope schools will see this competition as a way to talk about mental health and how it impacts their students, and that writing poetry is a way for them to communicate thoughts, feelings and events that may be challenging.”

• Press release from the Bermuda Hospitals Board