A Day in the Life How to use

Introduction

If you care about people with mental health difficulties and their everyday lives read what people have been sharing. We want to know the things that made life better and the things that made life worse.

Everyone will be asked to share up to 700 words about the same four days in the year, one each season; building a library of personal stories that answer the question: what things make life with a mental health difficulty worth living and what things make it more difficult?

Together the four days in the lives of people with mental health difficulties will give a snapshot of what it’s like to be be a person with mental health difficulties in England in the 21st Century.

Once uploaded, the stories will be available to view and search; giving a window into the everyday lives of people who experience mental health difficulty in England previously not attempted.

A Day in the Life isn’t a scientific research study but will show what can be discovered by the simple act of simply asking people with mental health difficulties what they think and what they experience.

Using the Site

If you are visiting the site to read days in the lives of people with mental health difficulties use the navigation at the top of the screen to navigate to areas of interest. You’ll be able to get to read days that really interest you by select positive, negative and neutral mentions on each area of interest.

If you are visiting the site because you experience a mental health difficulty, live in England and want to join this exciting opportunity to change how people talk about people with mental health difficulties; all you have to do is sign up. We’ll need a few details from you which won’t appear on the site, including an email address, and then you’ll get reminders to share your days across the year. Clicking ‘Add a Day’ on the front page will take you to a sign-up and login page.

Contributing

Thanks for considering contributing to this project and to sharing four days in your life as a person with mental health difficulties. Sign up to upload and share a day in your life.

FAQ

What is expected of me if I sign up?

A Day in the Life is about capturing a snapshot of what it’s like to live with a mental health difficulty in England. If you sign up you’ll be able to share up to 700 words of writing about four days across the year. You’ll be writing about what each of those four ordinary days is like for you living with a mental health difficulty; sharing what made that day better and what made it worse; writing about your worries and comforts and anything else that happens to you on those days.

There’s no obligation to write something on each of the four days but it would be awesome if you could so that, for the first time, through your day and hundreds of others we’ll have a snapshot of what it’s like to live with a mental health difficulty in today’s England.

How will I know which days to write about?

Once you sign up we’ll send you reminders in the run up to the day of your life to share and in the week afterwards.

How will I know what to write about?

We want you to be honest and to write about what happened on each day in question and whether it affected your wellbeing. We want people who do not have a mental health difficulty to get a window into what makes life harder and what makes life easier, more pleasurable or more rewarding for people with mental health difficulties. It’s a day in your life you’ll be sharing with anyone who wants to read about.

What will happen to each of my days once I upload it?

Each time you record a day and upload it your day there will be a delay before it is published on the site. This is because each day will be checked by us to makes sure that it does not include anything of the things we ask you not to include (see Writing Guidelines). We’ll also categorise your day based on what things you mention in your account. We are categorising entries for two reasons. Firstly: so that once uploaded it is easy for people reading to find days that feature experiences they are interested in; and secondly so that we will be able to put together simple reports talking about broad trends for interested readers based on all of the uploaded stories.

For answers to more frequently asked questions see Writing Guidelines

Registration (Signing Up)

In order to contribute, you’ll need to register an account first. You can do this by visiting the registration screen.

You don’t have to register using your real name and you can be as anonymous as you want to be.

Once you have registered by entering a username and your email address, an email will be sent to you containing your login details. If you do not see this confirmation email after a few minutes, check to see if it’s in your spam folder.

Once your are logged in, you can write a new day by clicking “Add new” in the left column. Please only submit one post for each calendar date. Under “Posts” are all the days you have already written.

Writing Guidelines

Welcome.

This is your chance to tell the world what makes life with a mental health difficulty better and what makes it worse. Tell us what made you feel better about your life and what made your life more difficult.

Here’s the things to remember when writing about your Days:

Please write about what happened to you on the day specified. We want everyone to be writing about the same days
Don’t reveal personal details; either your own or other peoples. Avoid naming specific people, organisations or services. Use terms like ‘my local hospital’ or ‘a nurse’ rather than using specific names.
If talking about people you know please do not include sensitive personal information about them. Don’t name them or include information that enable others to identify them
Please remember that A Day in Life is intended for people of all ages, backgrounds and beliefs to read.
Avoid identifying yourself and where you live. A town, city or area is fine but do not include details that would allow someone to work out your exact location
Remember that your day will be seen by anyone visiting the site; so don’t include anything in your account of your day that you wouldn’t want other people to know
You are under no pressure to publish your Day in the Life entries under your own name and we would advise that you remain anonymous
Once you are happy with your day, press upload. Please be patient when waiting for notification of it being accepted.
Remember: after you have submitted your Day you will not be able to edit it. If there is a problem [email]mark@socialspider.com[/email]
You can request for any of your days to be removed from public view on the site at any time, though they will still remain in the database until the end of the year.
Any entries that include contents that contravene existing law (including the Equality Act 2010) will either be edited or refused publication

Ready?

Add a day!