Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to contribute to his or her community.

Mental Health Awareness week is 10–16th May 2021 in the UK and the theme focuses on contact with nature.

April 2021 hosts both MS awareness week (19–25th April) and Parkinson’s awareness week (11th–17th April). This provides an opportunity to raise awareness and highlight the realities of living with a neurological condition.

The routine itself is obviously important as it provides comfort, safety and an antecedent or precursor to bed and ultimately sleep. The bath does however provide other, more physiological support to sleep and it’s this information that is important to know as it can help to justify bathing recommendations based on the evidence through robust clinical reasoning.

International epilepsy day occurs every year on the second Monday of February. It is an opportunity to promote awareness of epilepsy in more than 130 countries and provides an opportunity to enhance the understanding of epilepsy and encourage discussion around the need for better understanding of the condition and how it can be better managed.

Occupational therapists are educated to work within a social model of care, with client centred and holistic intervention at the professional core.  However, for a variety of reasons, including organisational culture, it is easy to develop prescriptive elements to practice that actually focus on diagnosis or institutional process.